HalfBlood Prince with a Twist
by potterrules92
Summary: If you were to add a single ingredient to a recipe, it would completly change how the food tastes, right? Well what if you added a single character to a story? How much would the story change? How many lives would change? How many would be saved? Or lost?
1. Dreaming?

Katie Vreeland closed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, bookmarked at the end of chapter twenty-seven, got up out of her chair, and walked over to her bedroom window. A sixteen-year-old girl with long, brown hair, brown eyes, and a tear-stained face stared back at her from the darkened glass.

"How could Snape kill Dumbledore?" she whispered.

Just as the last word left her lips, one of the streetlamps down on the sidewalk went out with a faint pop. Katie stared at it, her thoughts still on Dumbledore. She sighed, and was about to go lay down on her bed when another streetlamp went out. She smiled to herself, thinking of Dumbledore's putter-outer, when another light went out.

"Must be a power outage." She thought to herself.

Pop! Out went another. Then another and another…till the only thing that Katie could see down on the street was a tall, dark figure standing at the corner. She squinted as it started walking.

A light breeze disrupted the quiet stillness of the deserted street. The clouds shifted their position, and the moon became visible, casting a silvery light on the street and on the walking figure. Katie frowned. It looked like…but no, it couldn't be.

She decided to continue reading Half-Blood Prince. She picked up the book an only read four words when- Ding Dong!, the doorbell rang. Katie waited a minute to see if someone else would answer the door. The house remained still and quiet, so Katie opened her bedroom door, walked down the stairs, turned the knob of the front door and pulled it open.

Katie's jaw dropped.

A tall man with waist-length silvery white hair and beard and sparkling blue eyes behind half moon spectacles was standing on her doorstep.

"Hello. Am I correct in saying that you are Katie Vreeland?"

Katie suddenly realized that her mouth was hanging open and quickly closed it.

"Erm…I…uh…yes…yea, I'm Katie Vreeland. Er, and who exactly are you?" she asked, already suspecting the answer, though not believing it.

"My name is Albus Dumbledore."

"You're Dumbledore? But no, that's impossible. You aren't real. You…you…"

Then Katie realized: "I'm dreaming".

"Er, would you like to come in?"

"Yes, thank you" Replied Dumbledore, smiling.

As Katie was leading him into the living room, her father appeared in the hallway. Dumbledore held out his hand. "Hello, I am Albus Dumbledore."

"Matthew Vreeland" said Katie's dad, looking a bit confused, but shaking Dumbledore's hand all the same. "Would you like to come in and sit down?"

The three of them went into the living room where Katie's mother and Dumbledore were introduced. Then, Dumbledore began to tell them why he was there.

It turned out that Katie wasn't dreaming after all, and Dumbledore had come to offer Katie a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For some reason, a letter hadn't been sent to Katie when it should have been when she was eleven years old, but they were perfectly willing to let her come and start now. Katie accepted (very excitedly, for she was a very big fan of the Harry Potter books in the muggle world), and her parents were willing to allow her to go.

"Of course, we will have to get you some kind of tutor that can teach you everything that you should have learned in years one through five, but otherwise it's fine for me to let you start your sixth year now. That is the year that you would be in now if it hadn't been for, well, you know, with the letter, which I apologize for, by the way." Dumbledore stood. "Well then, Katie, I suppose that I'll be seeing you on September first." He said, and departed.

In just five weeks, Katie would be on the Hogwarts Express, and starting her very first year at a magical school. It just so happened, that in just five weeks, Harry Potter would be starting his sixth year at Hogwarts.


	2. Who're you?

**Ok, people, i'd just like to say sorry, cuz i didn't put an author's note or a disclaimer in the first chapter, so i apologise. And i just want to tell you that this is my first story, so if you think that the first chapter was a little on the bad side, i promise that it'll get alot better. i have alot palanned for this story... so, please read and review!**

** -Kaite**

**Oh yeah, and i don't own Harry Potter, but if i did, i'd be sooo happy. lol**

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"Who the bloody heck are you?"

Katie turned in her seat at the Gryffindor table to face to red-headed, freckled boy sitting across the table from her, and realized with a sudden jolt who had just spoken to her.

"Ron! Don't be so rude!" Katie looked at the bushy-haired girl sitting next to him and received a second jolt. "Actually, I don't think that I've ever seen you around here either."

"My name's Katie Vreeland, and you wouldn't have seen me before because this is the first time that I've been inside Hogwarts."

"But you're in sixth year, aren't you? It's impossible for you to not have been in Hogwarts before."

"Actually, no, it's not. Apparently, I've been a witch my whole life, but the letter that was sent to all of you when you were eleven wasn't sent to me. So instead of starting at Hogwarts in my first year, I'm starting in my sixth." Katie smiled.

Ron let out a long, low whistle. "Wow, you sure missed a lot."

"Yea, when are you going to learn everything that we learned in our first five years?"

"Professor Dumbledore said that he was going to get me some kind of a tutor."

"Hey!" said Ron suddenly. "Where's Harry?"

"I don't know," Hermione sounded a bit nervous. "The last time I saw him was on the Hogwarts Express."

"Oh, Harry's still on the train. He's getting his nose broken by Malfoy," said Katie matter-of-factly.

Ron and Hermione just gaped at her.

"Oh! I mean…erm…uh…kidding!...I was just kidding…." No one spoke for a long time.

Ron broke the silence. "Hang on, how did you know what house you were in?"

"I put on the sorting hat in Dumbledore's office, just after we arrived here."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Katie. By the way, I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Ronald Weasley." She said, indicating Ron.

"I know"

"You know who we are already?" Hermione asked. "But I thought that you just got here".

Katie had to do some quick thinking. She hadn't decided whether or not to tell them about the Harry Potter books in the muggle world.

"I know? Did I say that? I meant…er…nice to meet you too." Katie smiled awkwardly.

Katie was saved from explaining- the doors of the Great Hall opened. Katie turned to see a black-haired boy in glasses and muggle clothes walking swiftly towards that Gryffindor table.

"Harry! Where have you been?! Ron and I were starting to get worried! And why is there blood all over your face?"

"Is there?" Harry examined his blood-covered face in the back of his spoon.

"Here, I'll get it off for you. "Hermione took out her wand and did the spell to wipe his face clean. "There. But Harry, what happened to you?"

"I'll tell you later." Harry began to reach across the table for the pudding when he saw the girl sitting opposite him for the first time.

"Harry, this is Katie Vreeland. She's just staring at Hogwarts" Hermione told him. "Katie, this is Harry, Harry Potter."

The first thing that Harry noticed about the girl was that she was very pretty, and the second, that her eyes didn't do the usual, and rather annoying flick up to his forehead and back down again. He admired this about her.

"Hi." said Katie, smiling at Harry

"Hi." Harry felt his face go red. He suddenly wished that he was wearing something other than his dirty, oversized t-shirt and jeans.

Then everyone turned their attention to the Headmaster as he began to make his annual start of term speech. Throughout the entire speech, Harry's eye's kept darting back and forth from Dumbledore to Katie. She didn't notice. When Dumbledore finished, everyone started filing out of the Great Hall to their dormitories. Hermione and Ron went to go lead the first years to the Gryffindor common room. Harry got up, and Katie followed. She turned, and saw Argus Filch hobbling in her direction.

"You must be that new Vreeland girl" He wheezed.

"Er, yeah."

"Come with me. And you, Potter. The Headmaster would like to see the two of you."

"Why?" asked Harry.

"You're in big trouble, you are." Answered Filch with a sly smile.

Katie and Harry looked at each other, bewildered.

"But, we didn't do anything." Katie protested.

"Don't try and act all innocent." Filch looked positively delighted. Then he said, "The two of you are risking expulsion."

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**Ok, end of chapter two! woo! ra! lol. ok, reiew, and tell me what you think! thanks! )**


	3. Explaining

**Ok, so here's the third chapter. this one is longer than the other two were, so read and enjoy! oh yea, and i would apprecaiate it if i got some more reviews...thanks D **

**-Katie**

**i dont own Harry Potter, but if i did, then would have the Deathly Hallows in my posession. wow, wouldn't that be great. i can't wait till the summer. lol, anyway, go read! lol**

**

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"Enter." **

Katie and Harry walked into Dumbledore's office. Filch turned and walked away. Katie looked around at the office that she had never actually been in, but all the same knew so well from her beloved books. Everything was just as it was in the books. The little silver instruments on the tables, and the portraits of the former Headmasters displayed proudly on the walls. How can this all be so real? Katie wondered to herself.

Dumbledore snapped her out of her trance. "I suppose that Mr. Filch has already told you why you are here."

"Professor, we didn't do anything, I swear!"

"Honest, Sir, we've been in the Great Hall the whole time!"

Dumbledore just looked confused. He raised an inquisitive eyebrow at them. "I beg your pardon?"

Katie and Harry looked at each other, confused, for the second time in ten minutes. "Filch. He said that we were in trouble."

Dumbledore just looked at them.

"He said that we were risking expulsion."

Dumbledore chuckled. "Whatever Mr. Filch has said to you, you can regard as untrue. I have asked you here to ask you a favor, Harry. Katie still has to have her first five years of magical education. I was wondering whether you, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger were willing to tutor her."

"When you said tutor, I didn't know that you meant people my own age." Katie said.

"If you would rather have someone older tutor you, we can find someone." Dumbledore told her. Harry's heart sank. He liked the idea of giving Katie private lessons.

"No!" said Katie immediately "I would love to have them teach me!"

"Only if they are willing, of course" Said Dumbledore, turning to Harry.

"Yeah, we'll do it!" said Harry, smiling.

"Well, that's settled, then. Goodnight Harry, Katie."

"Goodnight Sir."

Harry turned to leave, but Katie stayed where she was.

"Harry, I have something to tell Professor Dumbledore. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Alright" said Harry, shrugging "See you tomorrow." As soon as the door closed behind Harry, Katie spoke "Erm, Professor, I wanted to tell you something."

Dumbledore nodded, indicating that he was listening.

"Well, you see, in the muggle world, there's this woman, J.K. Rowing, and, well, she's the author of this series of books." She paused.

Dumbledore nodded again, silently telling her to go on.

Katie took a deep breath. "There are six of them so far- the books, I mean- 'cause she's still writing the seventh, and each book is dedicated to each of Harry Potter's seven years at Hogwarts." She said with the last of her breath. There was silence.

To Katie's utter surprise, Dumbledore said, "I know."

Katie was at a loss for words. She simple didn't know what to say. All that came out was, "You know?"

"Yes."

"But…how?" Katie was extremely confused.

"Have you read all of these books Katie?" he asked.

Katie thought that this was an odd question, but she answered, "Yea, I read them."

"Well then Katie, take a seat."

If Katie thought that this was odd, she was completely unprepared for what Dumbledore said next.

"Seventeen years ago, a prophecy was made about Harry and Lord Voldemort, as I'm sure that you know."

"Yeah, it was in the fifth book." Katie said.

"Yes, and now, because Harry is destined to destroy Lord Voldemort on the end, Voldemort has made it his sole concern to kill Harry before Harry kills him. That makes sense to you, does it not?"

Katie nodded, and Dumbledore continued, "But ever since he found out a certain piece of information, Voldemort has now not one main concern, but two."

"Er, and what was that piece of information, sir?" Katie asked.

"Seventeen years ago, when Voldemort was at the height of his powers, he had greater numbers of faithful Death Eaters that you could imagine. One of these Death Eaters' name was Narcissa, Narcissa Black. Now at the time, Narcissa was one of Voldemort's most trusted Death Eaters. She was always chosen to be on Voldemort's most dangerous tasks and was trusted greatly by the Dark Lord. Now, one day, Narcissa fell in love with another Death Eater. Two years later, they were married and had children- twins. A baby boy and a baby girl." Dumbledore paused. Then he said, "The Death Eater that Narcissa married was Lucius Malfoy, and the baby girl was you."

Katie just sat there. She was about to say 'ha ha, nice joke professor', but then she remembered that Dumbledore never lied, and she had never heard him tell a joke. She just sat there, not believing what he had just said, and not seeing how it could possibly be true. But it couldn't be true. It just didn't make and sense. Maybe Dumbledore had the wrong person… but no, Dumbledore never made mistakes, either.

Katie had always been told that her parents had died in a plane accident when she was only a year old, that she was raised in an orphanage until, at the age of five, adopted by Elizabeth and Matthew Sennot. The second part was true, but apparently, her parents hadn't died, and they were alive, right now…

Katie was at a loss for words. She opened and then closed her mouth several times before finally speaking. "You mean that my real parents are Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy?" Katie asked, not even believing it coming from her own mouth.

"I'm afraid so, Katie. And I don't know if you've realized, but, well, this also means that Draco Malfoy is your...your brother."

It took a minute for all of this information to sink in.

"What?!! But, but, but, Professor! He can't be- my- my- but, I'm absolutely nothing like him!...We're completely different! And they can't be my parents! They're Death Eaters! And they practically worship Voldemort!" Katie sat in the chair in front of Dumbledore's desk moodily. "I mean, just look a them! I can't possibly be related to Malfoy! For one thing, he's a Slytherin! And I'm in Gryffindor for crying out loud! He's mean, selfish, and extremely arrogant, while I'm the complete opposite!"

"Katie, I know that you're not very happy about this news, but I assure you that it's true. And… there's something else as well."

"Great" Katie muttered.

"You remember what I said before, about Voldemort's two main concerns?"

Katie didn't think that this sounded too bad. "Yea"

"Well, as I'm sure you know, Voldemort was absolutely furious about the fact that Lucius had one: failed to retrieve the prophecy, two: that the prophecy had broken while under his care, three: that Lucius had allowed such chaos go on at the Ministry, because he was supposed to be in charge, and four: that he had gotten himself captured and imprisoned in Azkaban, along with very many of Voldemort's other most trusted supporters. Voldemort has decided to punish Lucius by taking away the on thing he still has: his family. And even though the Malfoys don't care even a little bit about you, you are still considered Lucius's child."

"So what you're saying is that… that Voldemort's after me?" asked Katie, silently praying that the answer would be 'no'.

"Yes, Katie, he is after you, but let me remind you that you are in the safest place that you could possibly be in this situation: Hogwarts. And as long as you are under my care, Katie, I assure you that you cannot be harmed."

Katie nodded, a little relieved.

"And if you're not completely convinced that you are safe, just take a look at Harry. He's in just as much danger as you are, but he is content here because he knows that he is safe." Dumbledore looked at his watch. "Well, Katie, I think that it is time for you to be going now. You have a lot of learning to do tomorrow. Unless you already have a full six years of magical knowledge from those books?"

"No, sir. I know most of the incantations, but I've never actually tried to cast them before, and I'm sure than it's a lot harder than it looks."

"I see. Well then, Katie, I hope that you get a good night's sleep."

"Good night sir." Katie opened the door to Dumbledore's office, then stopped. "Professor, is it alright if I tell Harry, Ron and Hermione what we talked about?"

Dumbledore thought for a couple seconds, then said, "Yes, Katie, it's alright."

Katie walked into the Gryffindor common room to find Harry, Ron, and Hermione sitting in the chairs closest to the fire.

"Katie, what took so long? Harry got back ages ago."

"I was talking with Dumbledore, and I'm going to tell you guys everything he said." Katie sat down in one of the chairs and began with the Harry Potter books in the muggle world. Katie told them everything- about J.K. Rowling, about the seven books, what kind of information was in the books, how they were the main characters, and how weird it was to find yourself in a fictional book-literally. And when she was finished with all of that, told them about her…family.

The four of them stayed up for hours discussing everything.

"That's kind of scary, though. I mean, how does Rowling know all this? I've definitely never heard of her before." Said Hermione anxiously.

"I dunno, but she can't be spying on us, 'cause she's already written the sixth book, and you guys are only starting now. She must be some kind of fortune teller or something." Katie said.

"Well if she's a fortune teller, she's awfully good. She should replace Trelawney." Harry said, and all four of them started to laugh. Katie caught his eye, and they both blushed and looked away quickly. When they were finished laughing, Ron said, "Well, no offense, Katie, but I think that it's kind of weird, and a little gross that you're related to the Malfoys."

"Do you think I care about the fact that they're all I have for a family? Personally, I think that it's absolutely disgusting. And I'm perfectly fine with the fact that the lot of them hate my guts, because I feel the exact same way about them."

"Katie, I know exactly how you feel. I mean, just look at the Dursleys. Actually, now that I see what kind of family you have, Katie, I think that I'm actually lucky to have a family as nice as the Dursleys." Harry said, laughing. Ron, Hermione, and Katie started to laugh, too. When they finished making fun of the Malfoys and the Dursleys, Hermione said, "So Katie, when do you want to start your lessons?"

"Tomorrow would be good, seeing as its Saturday." Ron said.

Hermione turned to him, "Is your name Katie?"

"I was just saying-" he started to say, but he was cut off by Harry, "Hermione, you can teach Katie Charms, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, Potions, and Astronomy. Since, you know, you're top of the year and well, you know, you're just so smart."

"Oh really? Gee Harry, I'm so flattered that I've just decided that you and Ron don't have to do anything to help."

"Wow! Really?"

"Sure! The two of you can just sit back on your fat arses and do absolutely nothing!" she said with a fake smile. Katie laughed. Harry looked at her, smiling, and her face turned bright pink.

"I think that Harry should do teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. You know, kind of like last year, with the D.A." Hermione suggested.

"Ok."

"Then what'll I teach her?" asked Ron, feeling a little left out.

"Ron, you can teach her 'Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow-" Harry said, laughing.

"Shut up Harry" Said Ron, throwing a pillow at him.

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**Ok, go review and tell me what you think! wooo!**


	4. Lessons and the book

**Alrighty, fourth chappie! yay! i just wanna say thanks to everyone that reviewed, and if u read this story, i would _really_ appriciate it if you reviewed! thanks.**

** -Katie )

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"No, Katie, you're saying it wrong. It's Wing-_gar_-dium Levi-_o_-sa. Make the _gar_ nice and long.**

It was Saturday afternoon and Hermione was teaching Katie Charms in the Room of Requirement while Harry and Ron sat slumped in nearby chairs. They had started Katie's lessons as soon as they finished breakfast, and Katie now had almost full knowledge of Charms.

Katie smiled to herself.

"What?" asked Hermione.

"Nothing, I just remembered you saying the same exact thing to Ron in your first year. Wingardium Leviosa!" said Katie, pointing her wand at the white feather on the table in front of her. It rose, hovered for a few seconds, and then fell lightly back on the desk.

"Finally!" she exclaimed.

"Well done Katie!" said Hermione "but you know, I think that we should take a break and go down to lunch."

Ron jumped up "Lunch? It's about time! Let's go!" said Ron, grabbing Hermione's wrist and dragging her towards the door. Harry got up out of his chair and walked over towards Ron and Hermione, and Katie followed.

After they finished eating, it was back up to the Room of Requirement for Katie's lessons.

For the next couple of hours, Harry, Ron and Hermione taught Katie the basics of Transfiguration that they learned in their first five years at Hogwarts, and Katie mastered most of them.

This is how it went all of Saturday and Sunday- Harry, Ron, and Hermione teaching Katie the basics of magic- spells and information that they themselves had learned in years one through five. By the end of Sunday, Katie's brain felt like it was fit to burst. She had been taught about a year's worth of information for seven classes in just two days. Her headache was horrible; it felt almost like a migraine, even though she didn't know what a migraine feels like, but if it was anything like this, she was thankful that she had never experienced it up until now. It was even awful enough to keep her from having a full nights sleep.

But the next day, Monday, the four of them started lessons. Katie's schedule was the same as Harry's and Ron's; she assumed that Hermione's extra classes would be too much for her, not to mention too hard.

She went through her classes with Harry and Ron, and she was relieved to find that they didn't do very much, seeing as it was their first day back in classes. She could barely keep herself awake through the day, and scarcely paid her teachers any attention, due to lack of sleep and the pounding headache in her forehead.

At the end of the day, the four of them went down to the Great Hall to enjoy a nice dinner. It was only when Harry dropped his Potions book loudly on the floor that Katie came to her senses and finally woke up with a start.

"Sorry, Katie, I didn't mean to make you jump, that was an accident." Harry said, indicating the book in his hand, which he had just picked up off the ground.

Now that Katie was awake for the first time that day, she was able to actually pay attention to the conversation and join in.

Hermione looked at the book in Harry's hand. "Harry, what have you done to that book? It's completely ruined!" She said, looking at the dirty, torn up and written on book that Harry had now placed on the table with utter horror that a book had been treated that way.

"Calm down, Hermione, it's not new or anything. It's not even mine. Slughorn gave it to me because I didn't expect to be taking Potions this year, and didn't buy any supplies for that class in Diagon Alley. I needed a book to borrow until I order a new one, so this is the one he gave me."

Something clicked in Katie's brain, like a little red flag going up in her mind. Something about that book…but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Hermione was still aghast that whoever was the previous owner of the book was had treated it so horribly. She was about to say something else when Ron interrupted her, "Relax, Hermione, he's going to get a new one." He said. "And so am I, as a matter of a fact. Harry, we should order them tomorrow." He added. No answer. Ron looked at Harry. "Harry? What's the matter?"

Harry looked up from the book. "Sorry, I was just reading this. "He said, indicating the book. "There's all kinds of strange notes in the margins here." He opened the book to the back cover and read aloud, "This book is property of the Half-Blood Prince. Hmmm, I wonder who that is." He placed the book unconcernedly back in his bag, but Katie recognized that inscription and sat up straighter in her chair, every trace of sleepiness completely gone.

"Oh my god" she said under her breath, staring at the Harry with complete and utter horror on her face.

"What?" asked Harry, looking extremely concerned.

Katie pointed at his bag. "That- that book. Oh my god."

"Katie, what's the matter? What's wrong?" Ron, Hermione and Harry all looked anxious at the expression of alarm and panic on Katie's troubled face.

It had all just came back to her. Everything- the entire story of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The whole thing came back to her in a great rush of memories. Memories of happiness, of sorrow, of troubled times, of death.

Katie's breath was coming to her in short, quick gulps of oxygen. She had completely forgotten…but how could she forget? How could she _possibly _forget? Dumbledore's death, Snape's betrayal, and Malfoy…her brother…

"Oh my god. Oh, oh no." Katie put her hand to her forehead and shook her head. "We have to do something! We can't let it happen all over again!" Katie leaned forward "We could stop it, stop it all… save his life!"

By now, saying that Harry, Ron and Hermione were confused would be an understatement. Big time.

"Katie, do you want us to bring you to the Hospital Wing?" asked Hermione, extremely troubled and uneasy about her, and concerned for her health.

"No, no, but we have to do someth- you don't know what happens!" Katie realized for the first time. "But I don't know if I should tell…but if we could save his life…"

"Katie, what are you talking about? Save whose life? The three of us are really confused, and it would help if you explained what you're talking about." Said Ron, staring at Katie with a nervous look on his face.

"We're going upstairs." Said Katie abruptly, standing up from the table and taking a couple steps towards the door. She turned around, to see that none of them had moved. "Come _on_!" she said with urgency. Harry shrugged at Ron and got up, and Hermione and Ron followed suit.

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**Wooo! hmmm, what do you think the foursome (lol) will do in the next chapter? only i know...lol. alright, tell me what you thought! and i'm always open to critisism or suggestions! i want this story to be good just as much as you do... oh yea, and if you know anyone that is looking for a good read, could you suggest my story? please? lol, ok, thanks, bye! **


	5. Planning and Pillow Fights

**Weeeee! lol. ok, so i have to get started on the next chapter now. i bet that you guys are wondering what happens next, when Katie tells them everything that happens in book six (a.k.a. Harry, Ron, and Hermione's futures...), so i wont keep you waiting. **

**-Katie**

**and i don't mean to sound mean or greedy or anything, but i know that there are people out there that are reading my story and not reveiwing, so i'm just asking that if you read, please please please review, cuz reviews make me happy, and the more reviews i get, the happier i'll be, and the happier i am, the faster i'll update. phew! lol. even if u think that the story stinks, please review and tell me, that way i can make it better. if i don't get more reviews for this story, then i might not even continue the story. so please review? **

**and if u happen to know anyone that is looking for a good story to read, or just a Harry Potter story to read, could you suggest mine to them? i would _really_ appreciate it if you did. i would even put something in the story at your request. i'm already putting in characters for SingingHeartOut 7 and ellicullenmlr, so u can ask them if u don't believe me. ok, i said that i wouldn't keep you waiting, and just look at how much i wrote!! ok, i'll shut up now so u can read **

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Katie was walking, practically running, down the corridor, taking great, big strides- kind of like the way that you would half walk, half run to keep up with Hagrid- to get to the Gryffindor common room, with Harry, Ron and Hermione trying desperately to keep up with her. Turning the corner, she collided with a first year Gryffindor, Marlene. Marlene was knocked to the ground, over-come with shock, and screamed with fright. Katie paid no attention. Her goal was the Gryfindor common room, and nothing was going to stop her from getting there. She turned another corner, saw the portrait of the fat lady at the end of the hall, and started to sprint. 

"What's all this running for? Something urgent, i assu-"

"Fortuna major!" Katie said the password breathlessly, intterupting the fat lady.

She opened up, revealing the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, and Katie hastily climbed through. Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed her into the center of the common room. Katie was surprised, but happy, to find it completely empty, but then she remembered that everyone was still at dinner.

Ron collapsed on all fours on the red carpet. "Katie...what ever you...have to...tell us...better be really...important...because I...have never...run so...fast in my...life" he said, gasping for air. As a response, Katie plopped down into an armchair in front of Ron. Harry and Hermione followed her example, looking almost as tired as Ron, though not quite.

"Alright, look," Katie bagan, between breaths, "remember on Friday, when I told the three of you about those Harry Potter books in the muggle world, right? Well, I left out the last part. I only expained about the first five books, not the sixth. I told you about it, but i didn't say what happens in your sixth year here." she paused.

"Well, what does happen? What happens to us?" Asked Ron. Like Katie, his breathing had also gone back down to normal. "Is it good?" he added as an afterthought.

"For some people, it's good, for others...not quite as they would have liked..."

"Katie, does somebody die, 'cause it sounded like you said something about that before." asked Hermione.

"Yes, someone dies." Katie blinked, and found there were tears in her eyes.

"Who? Someone we know very well?" The fear in Hermione's voice was audible. You could tell that she was anxious.

Katie hesitated. "I'll tell you in a minute. But first, I have to let you know everything else that happens. Ok, first, that book." Katie pointed to Harry's school bag. He picked up the bag and handed it to Katie.

She dumped all of the contents out on the couch, and sorted through it until she found what she was looking for. She held up Harry's Potions book, showing it to them. "This book is property of the Half-Blood Prince." she said.

"Yea, that's what it says on the back cover. But who is the Half-Blood Prince?" Harry said. "Hang on, isn't that the title of the muggle book?"

"Yes, it is. Harry, in the muggle book, you order a new Potions book, but instead of using the newly-ordered one, you rip off the cover and put it on this one." Katie indicated the Potions book in her hand.

"Do I really? To be honest, I was actually thinking of doing just that once the new one comes in." Harry said, laughing.

Katie continued, "You use this book throughout the entire year in Potions class, until you curse Malfoy with a spell that you find inside it. You are forced to hide the book, because you are afraid that you will get into trouble for having it."

"I curse Malfoy? How? With what spell?" Harry was sitting up straighter in his chair, obviously eager to hear more on the subject.

Katie smiled at him. "With 'Sectumsempra'. It's actually a really dark curse, so don't go using it anywhere. It's likely to earn you a cell in Azkaban, but I'm not positively sure." Said Katie, warningly. "Anyway, I'm just going to give you the basic facts, because it will take too long to explain the whole book in detail. So. Ron, you go out with Lavender Brown, and-"

"What?!" Katie turned to Ron, but he wasn't the one who had interrupted her. It was Hermione. Katie looked at her, to find that her face had gone a very deep red. Katie decided to leave her alone. She would come back to this subject later.

"-And Hermione, you go out with Cormac McLaggen." Katie looked at Ron, to see what his reaction was. His ears had turned so red that they almost looked purple. Katie smiled. Oh, this was going to be fun...

"And as for Malfoy," Katie said the 'Malfoy' through clenched teeth, "he becomes a Death Eater.

Ron and Hermione just looked at her with shock and disbelief written all over thier faces, but Harry stood up without warning. "Ha!" he said, pointing at Ron and Hermione. "Ha! I told you! But _no_, you wouldn't listen to me! You wouldn't believe me when I said that!" He sat down, with a proud look on his face.

"Katie, is that true? He's a Death Eater?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah, it's true. Harry was right all along. Throughout the whole book, he kept on saying that, but you guys wouldn't listen to him, because you didn't believe him. And there's more. Malfoy nearly kills Ron and Katie Bell. Katie Bell touches a cursed necklace, which should have killed her, but she survived by the smallest little stoke of luck. She only brushed it, didn't actually come on full contact with it, which is what saved her life. If she had touched it with less that an inch more of skin, she would have died, which is really scary."

"Well, Katie, I don't mean to sound like I want her to die or anything, but, what if, this time around, she dies?" asked Hermione. "I mean, since you got here, some things that were in the muggle books stayed the same, but other things changed. Like, for instance, now that we know what happens with Malfoy, and that sectumsepra curse. Harry's not going to do that now, because we know that it was supposed to happen. And anything that we did during the first two days back at Hogwarts in the book, well, we didn't do them, whatever they were, because we were busy tutoring you. The fact that you're here is going to compltley change the occurence of events in our sixth year. Now, everything is going to be different than in the book."

"Hermione, you're making it sound like it's a bad thing that she showed up." said Harry. He picked up the glass of water that he had brought with him from the Great Hall and started to drink.

"No! Of course not! I'm really happy that Katie's here. I really like her. I'm not saying that the fact that she's here is a bad thing, I'm saying that it's a really good thing. Like when we were in the Great Hall, she said something about saving someone's life. Well, if somebody is supposed to die in our sixth year, maybe we can prevent it. By the way, Katie, you never did tell us who it was that died."

Katie knew that she would have to tell them. She couldn't just let it pass, and pretend like it didn't happen, because it did. And like Hermione said, if she told, maybe they could save him. Katie took a deep breath, "Ok, I'll tell you now. The person that- that dies- it's- it's...Dumbledore."

Hermione uttered a small, horrified scream, and put her hands over her mouth. Ron was so surprised that he actually fell off his chair, and yelled, "What?!" Harry, who had been drinking water seconds before, spat the drink out of his mouth and all over the floor. Actually, only part of what was in his mouth come out. The other part was half-way down his throat when Katie said 'Dumbledore', and he started to choke. He leaned forward, coughing, and spitting out droplets of water onto the floor.

"Harry, are you alright?" asked Ron, getting up off the floor.

Harry continued to hack water out of his throat, his face beginning to turn a light shade of blue.

"Harry? You ok?" Ron asked again, this time a little more concerned.

"Does he look ok to you?" Katie said to Ron, while thumping Harry hard on the back.

Harry's coughing and choking subsided, and he started to breath, taking quick, sharp gasps of air. Once the color returned to his face, he said, "What?! Dumbledore?!"

It took Katie a second to remember what they had been talking about before Harry had almost died. "Yeah, I know, it's really sad, but I think that maybe, we could save his life. Don't you think?"

"Well, I would certaintly like to, but first, I would like to know exactly how he dies." said Harry.

"Snape. It's Snape. He kills him."

"What?! You're not going to tell me that Snape kills Dumbledore!" Ron said, aghast.

"Katie, we have got to save his life. We can't just let him die like that, now that we know what happens. And especially since we know that it was Snape that did it. I really hate him now." said Harry angrily.

"Harry, you always hated him." said Ron, smiling.

"Yeah, but now, I hate him even more. How could he do that? Kill Dumbledore? I mean, we always knew that he was really mean, but actually killing somebody? There are alot of mean people in the world, but I doubt that too many of them would kill someone." said Harry.

"Ok, so then it's decided? We're going to give it a shot? Saving Dumbledore's life, I mean."

"Yeah, definitley." said Harry.

"But Katie, what are we going to do about Malfoy? I mean, are we just going to let him attempt killing Katie Bell and Ron again? I mean, like I said before, what if they died this time around? We can't let that happen." said Harry.

"No, Harry's right, we couldn't just let that happen." Katie thought for a minute. "Ok, here's what we're going to do: The first person that is supposed to die is Katie Bell, right, well, we're going to save her first. All we need to do is not let her get anywhere near that cursed necklace that she is supposed to touch. If she never touches it, then she'll never be in any danger of dying." Katie finished.

"Sounds like a plan to me." said Ron.

"Exactly when are we going to be doing all this though? When does Katie Bell touch the necklace in the muggle book?" asked Hermione.

"On the way back from our first Hogsmeade trip. She's carrying it wrapped in brown paper. She got from the girl's bathroom in the Three Broomsticks." Katie told them.

The four of them spent the next half-hour discussing and planning for the upcoming Hogsmeade visit. When they finally had everything settled and planned out, Hermione and Katie went up to the girl's dormitory, and Harry and Ron to the boy's one.

"Hermione, I was kind of wondering," Katie said to Hermione as they climbed the staircase leading to the girl's dormitories, "if you have, erm, any...feelings for Ron." Katie looked at Hermione furtively.

"What? I- uh- what gave you that idea?" Hermione sputtered. She turned her face away from Katie to open the door to the girl's dormitory, but not fast enough to hide the reddish color that had appeared in her cheeks.

"Oh, I dunno, just your reaction when I said that Ron goes out with Lavender in the muggle book." Katie said with a slight smile.

"Oh, that, well, you know, I was just...surprised."

"Surprised, huh? Are you sure that jelousy didn't have a hand in it Hermione?" Katie was thoroughly enjoying this.

"Oh yes, Katie? And what if I told you that Harry had feelings for Parvarti?"

Katie looked sharply at Hermione. "What?" Realizing that Hermione had been only kidding, Katie's face turned slightly pink.

"What's that, Katie? Jelousy?" Hermione gave Katie a sly smile.

As a response, Katie picked the pillow up off her bed and playfully threw it at Hermione.

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**Ok, guys, i hope you liked that chapter ) i hope that it was long enough for you (cough cough christina) lol ok, please please please review! **

**oh yea, and i forgot to apologise for not updating for the whole week, but i'm not allowed online on weekdays till my biology grade goes up, so sorry. lol. but i should be able to update alot more now, cuz i think its' an A now. anyway...lol**


	6. Flying

**Okie dokie people, i just wanna say thank you soooo much, everyone who reviewed! i know that i sounded really mean (/greedy/demanding/however you want to put it, lol) in the last chapter's author's note, and i really want to appologise for that. i currently (as i'm typing this) have 16 reviews, and i'm am overjoyed. **

**oh, and by the way, i would just like to clear some things up: 1: Katie is just a character that i made up. she's not Katie Bell. lol. so, for the disclaimer, no, i don't own any of the Harry Potter characters, but i do own Katie Vreeland! lmao, and 2: The Malfoys _do_ know that Katie is part of their family, but they didn't think that she had the proper qualities of a pureblood when she was first born, so they put her in an orphanage, and she was adopted at about age 5. and Draco knows too, he just ignores it, because he doesn't like her. ok, sorry, just though that would help you understand the story a little better. lol**

**and another thing: everything that happened in the sixth book (HBP) will happen in the story, unless i say that it didn't. like when Harry got the detention with Snape in their first DADA class. I didn't talk about that (yet) in the story, but it still happened in the story. i hope that that didn't confuse you guys too much. ok, anyway, on to chapter 6!**

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"Harry! Hey Harry!" Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Katie all turned around to see Jack Sloper running towards them with a piece of paper in his hand. 

It was Tuesday morning, and the four of them were heading to breakfast before their classes started.

Jack caught up to them and handed Harry the piece of paper that he had in his hand. "Listen, I heard that you're the new captian, when're you holding tryouts?"

But Harry wasn't listening. Katie watched him as he unfurled the scroll of parchment that Jack had handed him. Katie knew exactly what it was: the letter form Dumbledore, asking Harry to come to his office for his "lessons" on Saturday. Jack Sloper walked away, and the four of them continued on their way to the Great Hall.

"I think that I'll hold tryouts on Sunday." Harry said, looking at Ron, Hermione, and Katie and ignoring the letter that he was still holding in his hand.

"Saturday." said Katie. "In the muggle book, you hold the tryouts on Saturday."

"Alright, tryouts are on Sunday then." Harry looked at Katie, smiling, and Katie's cheeks turned the lightest pink.

"Wow, I just realized! I'm going to be able to watch an actual quidditch game!" Katie said with an extied look on her face.

"That's right, I forgot, you've never seen quidditch before!" Harry said. "You just wait. It'll be brilliant." Harry hoped that when she watched him fly, he didn't mess up.

"Wow, it must be amazing. Actually flying, I mean. I've never even dreamed of flying until I came here. Well, actually, that's a lie." Katie said, laughing.

"Why don't you try it? Flying. I could let you use my Firebolt during the break after lunch. How about it?" Harry asked.

"Oh wow, I dunno. I think I'd be really scared, up in the air like that. What if I fell?" A slightly worried look appeared on Katie's face.

"Don't worry, it's really fun, and I won't let you fall." Harry said reassuringly.

"Alright, I'll give it a try." Katie said, with a smile on her face. What mostly persuaded her was the fact that Harry had said he wouldn't let her fall.

When the four of them got to the Great Hall and had taken their seats at the Gryffindor table, Hermione said, "Harry, you never opened that letter."

It took Harry a second to realize what she was talking about. "Oh yeah, _that_ letter!" Harry pulled it out of his bag with some diffuculty and laid it out on the table. He read it aloud, but in a slight whisper, so that no one that was sitting near them would hear what it said.

Dear Harry,

I would like to start our private lessons this Saturday. Kindly come to my office at 8:00 P.M. I hope that you are enjoying your first day back at school.

Yours sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

P.S. I enjoy acid pops.

"He enjoys acid pops?" asked Ron, puzzled.

"It's the password to get past the gargoyle in front of his office. Ha! Snape's not going to be pleased, I'm not going to be able to do his detention." Harry said, smiling. Katie started to smile too.

"What?" Harry asked.

"You said the same exact thing in the muggle book." Katie told them.

"Really? That's really creepy. How does- what's her name again? oh yeah- Rowling know all this?"

"I dunno, but I think that we should start heading to class now, don't you think?" asked Hermione, after looking at her watch.

The four of them left the Great Hall togther, but went opposite ways at the staircase; Hermione went to Arithmacy, and Harry, Ron, and Katie went to the Gryffindor common room to get a head start on their Potions essays. They didn't get much of it finished, but once Hermione showed up, they got a considerable amount more done. After that, they went down to the Great Hall again to have lunch. Once all four of them were seated at the Gryffnidor table, Harry said, "So Katie, are you still up for flying after lunch?"

"Yea, I'll do it. I'm really nervous, though." she said with a weak smile.

Harry smiled back at her. "Don't worry, it'll be fun."

"You're going right after lunch?" asked Hermione.

"Yea, why?" asked Harry.

"Then I don't think that I'll be able to go with you guys. I have three translations for Ancient Runes, I have to finish Snape's essay, and I have another essay for Arithmacy." she said.

"Wow, that's too bad for you. I'm glad that I don't have as much homework as you do, Hermione." said Ron, smiling.

"Yes, but you do still have tons of homework that you're behind on, and it takes you alot longer to finish homework than it does for me."

"So what? Are you saying that I should waste my break time doing homework?"

"There's an idea."

"C'mon Hermione, do you seroiusly think that I'd rather do my homework than go outside on this beautiful sunshiny day?"

"It doesn't matter what you'd rather do, what matters is the fact that you are going to fail all of your classes if you don't start doing your own homework for a change." Hermione said matter-of-factly.

"Sounds like something you would say, Hermione." Ron muttered as he stabbed his fork into his lunch moodily. They ate their lunch silently for a while, Ron eating in a rather grumpy way, and Hermione reading some book for one of her classes. Katie was looking at the ceiling, thinking about how amazing magic was, and she didn't notice, but Harry was staring at her the whole time, thinking about how she was going to be all alone with him on the quidditch field. When everyone began filing out of the Great Hall to their classes, and in the 6th and 7th years' cases, to the common room for their break, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Katie got up and followed. Hermione went to the Gryffindor common room, dragging Ron along behind her, while Harry and Katie set off towards the Quidditch field.

"Alright, Katie." Harry said once they were in the middle of the field. He laid his Firebold down on the grass. "Stand on the left side of the broom, extend your right arm over it, and say 'Up!'. Got it?"

"Yea." Katie stuck her arm out straight to the side. "Up!" Nothing happened.

"No, you should put your arm more in front of you, not all the way to the side." Harry took hold of her arm and moved it so that it was directly over the broomstick; not too much to the side, and not directly in front of her. Katie felt her cheeks warm up.

"UP!"

The broom twitched a little, but remained firmly on the ground.

"Did you see that? It moved!" Katie said exitedly.

"Nice job! But try to keep your voice steady and strong." said Harry. He was smiling too. After a couple more tries, Katie finally got the broom to fly off the ground and into her hand.

"Alright, so now you can get on." Harry said, like it was the most simple thing in the world.

"Get on? Oh, ok.."

"Here." Harry held out his hand, and Katie took it. Both of them felt the same warm, happy feeling suddenly erupt in their chests at the contact of their hands. Katie held on to him as she got on the Firebolt and rose a foot or two in the air. Harry used his free hand to pick up the other broom that he had brought outside so that he could fly with her. He got on, and rose to Katie's level, still holding on to her right hand.

Harry showed her how to make the broom move in whatever direction she wanted, and she caught on pretty easily. By the end of the break, they were having races across the Quidditch field. Katie won the first three races, and then Harry won the next one. They started heading back to the castle when they heard the bell ring, telling them to get back to class.

"See? Flying wasn't as hard as you thought it would be, was it?" Harry asked her as they were walking back towards the castle.

"No, not once I got the hang of it. It was pretty scary, though." She said.

"You didn't look that scared." Harry told her.

"I was alot less scared when I knew that you were there for me." Katie blushed after she said this.

Harry just smiled. Then he said, "Really, though, you did pretty good today. Like when we were racing, you beat me three times."

"That's because you let me win."

"No I didn't. Why would I let you win?" Harry asked.

"I dunno why you would, but I know that you did." Katie was smiling.

"No, I didn't. Besides, you had the faster broom."

"But you've had more experience flying."

"So? It doesn't matter how good you are at flying if you have a really slow broom."

"So you're saying that if you had the Firebolt, you would have won?" Katie asked him.

"I dunno, I might have, or I might not have." Harry told her.

"I don't think you would have." Katie said.

"Why not? I'm not as good as you are?" Harry said with a smile.

"No, I think you would have let me win on purpose."

"And exactly why would I do that?"

"Oh, I dunno." Katie looked at him, and she smiled. Harry felt his stomach do a few backflips when she smiled at him like that. He smiled back. They were silent the rest of the way back to the castle, but they were having pretty much the same thoughts.

They returned to the Gryffindor common room, where they picked up thier books, then preceded to Defense Against the Dark Arts class, where they met up with Ron and Hermione. Most of the other Gryffindors and Slytherins were already there.

"So, how did it go?" Hermione asked them.

"Really well! Katie's already really good at flying, and this was only her first day."

"I didn't do _that _well, Harry." said Katie. For what seemed like the millionth time since she met him, Katie's face turned crimson.

"Hey Vreeland!" Draco Malfoy was calling to Katie from the Slytherin end of the line. Harry, Ron, Hermion, and Katie all turned at the sound of his voice. Harry felt a hateful, bitter feeling erupt in his chest at the sight of Malfoy. Malfoy, the traitor, the one who had almost caused the death of his best friend, the Death Eater.

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**Okie dokie! (yea, i no, i have to stop saying that, lol) so anyways, i decided to end the chapter here because...well, idk, i just did. lol. i didn't really wnat to end it here, cause i like cliffies, and this isn't much of a cliffy, but oh well. ok, sry, go review! lol.**


	7. Rivalry

**Okie dokie (lmao) i just have something to clear up with u guys about what i said in the last chapter's author's note: i didn't mean that every single thing was going to be the same between the HBP book and my story. Alot is going to stay the same, but alot is also going to change. Oh yeah, and one more thing before you go read the chapter: ok, about Katie. i no that she's related to the Malfoys and all, but she's pretty different from them. Like her hair color for instance. i know that all the Malfoys have blonde hair, but Katie's is brown. but i'm sure that there are loads of people out there (in the real world) that have completely different hair or eye color than their parents. it's with genetics and all that. it just happened that Katie has different hair color. and i don't know if anyone noticed, but Katie should have the same surname as the Malfoys, but she doesn't. Let's just say that when she was adopted, her surname changed from Malfoy to Vreeland, ok? and besides, i think the name Katie Vreeland sounds alot better than Katie malfoy, don't you? lol. so anyway, on to chapter 7!**

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"What do you want, Malfoy?" Katie yelled back to him over the noise of several conversations going on in the same place at the same time. 

"I saw you and Potter out on the Quidditch field before. I hope that you never decide on flying in public, because you're worse than Weasle King over there! And that's saying something!" The whole Slytherin section of the line burst into laughter at Malfoy's joke.

"Shut up, Malfoy!" Harry yelled to him. The he turned to Katie and said, "Don't listen to him Katie, I think you did really well." Harry was looking at Malfoy like he would like nothing better than to punch him in the mouth.

"Ooooh, looks like Potter has a soft spot for Vreeland!" Malfoy said with a sneer. Harry pulled out his wand. The students that had been standing between Malfoy and Harry backed away quickly in fear of getting hit with a jinx. Malfoy reached into the pocket of his robes and drew out his wand also.

Hermione tugged on Harry's wand arm. "Harry, stop, you'll get into so much trouble. He's not worth it." Harry ignored her and turned to Katie, " Does this happen in the muggle book?" he whispered. Katie thought for a minute. "No, it doesn't, but Harry, don't start a fight, please. Hermione's right, you'll get into loads of trouble if Snape comes out here."

Harry considered what she said for a minute. He was about to say something back to her when _WHAM!_ Harry was flown backwards, and felt the air in his lungs vanish. It felt like someone had dropped a three hundred pound weight on his chest. Somewhere in the far distance, Harry could hear the laughter of the Slytherins, Malfoy's laughter loudest of all. He got up off the floor, gasping for air, and trying to return some oxygen to his lungs when, suddenly, for the second time, he felt the same horrible sensation in his chest of having the wind knocked out of him. He got up again, his eyes swimming with water and his face a purplish color; a mixture of blue from not being able to breath, and red, from embarrassment and anger. Angrily blinking the tears from his eyes, he quickly walked the few feet that he had flown backwards towards Malfoy. Not watching where he was going, he tripped on a foot of a Slytherin, and tumbled to the ground for the third time.

Katie looked from Harry, who was still on the ground, with a face redder than she'd ever seen, to Malfoy, who was also on the ground, but laughing hysterically, his eyes swimming with tears of joy, and made up her mind right there, on the spot. She pulled out her wand, silently selecting one of the curses Harry had taught her, brought her wand straight out in front of her, and opened her mouth, saying the incantation. Two things happened at once: Malfoy looked up just in time to see a jet of red light hurtling through the air from Katie's wand, and Professor Snape opened up the door to the classroom just in time to see Katie's jinx hit Malfoy directly in the chest, sending him flying of the floor and into the opposite wall, just as he had thrown Harry. Katie's face shown with happiness and glee-she had just successfully cursed Malfoy.

"Vreeland!"

Katie spun around, the smile gone from her face in an instant. It was replaced with a look of utter horror and fright. "Ye-yes, sir?"

Snape was about to say something to Katie, but was intterupted. "Professor, did you see that? Vreeland just jinxed me!"

Snape turned to see Malfoy on the ground, panting. He whipped his head back around to Katie. "Vreeland, detention, my office, Friday at eight-"

"No! She didn't do anything wrong! It's Mafoy's fault!" Harry said, getting up and walking over to Katie and Snape.

"Potter." Snape said with a sneer. "I should have known." He paused. Then he said, "Both of you have detention, then. Friday night at eight." Then he turned sharply to the rest of the class. "Inside, now."

The students scurried into the classroom, all of them were scared of Snape. Malfoy got up and shoved past Katie and Harry, with a look of satisfaction written clearly on his face. Katie and Harry were the last ones to enter the classroom. They walked over to the table that they shared with Ron and Hermione and sat down grumpily.

"Harry," Hermione whispered to him after he and Katie had sat down, "I'm not going to rub it in your face, but I _did_ tell you not to-"

"Oh give it a rest, Hermione. None of us can help it if you're right all the time." Harry snapped at her.

"Yes, but you can help it that you get into trouble all the time.'' She said back to him, still whispering, so Snape wouldn't hear them. "And I'm not the only one that told you not to do it. Katie did too, if you recall."

"Yea, and in case you haven't noticed, Hermione, she's in the same predicament as I am."

"Potter! Stop talking and pay attention!"

"But-"

Snape wasn't in the mood. "Fifteen points from Gryffindor. Now, as I was saying..."

When class was over, the students packed up their things and filed out of the door into the corridor. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Katie found themselves behind Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Harry reached into his pocket for his wand, but Katie stopped him. "Don't, Harry." Harry just nodded.

They were silent the rest of the way to Transfiguration. After Transfiguration was over, they went up to the Gryffindor common room to drop off their books, then they headed to the Great Hall for dinner.

Katie let her eyes wander as she drank her pumpkin juice. She looked at the ceiling, then the staff table, then at Harry, and then her eyes landed on Malfoy. He was sitting at his table, holding his left arm, and was surrounded by a bunch of Slytherins. Katie was just able to hear their conversation.

"That looks awfully painful, Draco." One of the sixth year Slytherin girls, Christina, was talking to him in a crooning tone.

"Yea, it is, actually. I think it's broken, from when Vreeland jinxed me and I flew into the wall. I'm going to get it checked by Madam Pomfrey in a couple minutes." Malfoy was sucking up the attention like a dementor sucks happiness. Katie looked at Pansy Parkinson. She was sitting at the other end of the table, glaring at Christina with a look of obvious jealousy.

"Would you like me to come with you Draco?" Christina was practially treating Malfoy like a god.

"Sure, if you would like to. I could do with the company." He gave Christina a flirtatious smile. She giggled. Katie turned her head away; the sight was making her sick. Her eyes started to wander again, and when they landed on Harry, she found that he had been staring at her, and they both looked away quickly. A couple minutes passed, then Katie said, "You know, I was thinking, maybe we should tell Malfoy, you know, that we know about him being a you-know-what."

"Why, that doesn't happen in the book, does it?" asked Ron.

"No, but only because the two of you," she pointed to Ron and Hermione, "didn't beleive Harry when he told you about it."

"Well, don't you think we'd get either ourselves or Malfoy into trouble if he found out that we knew? And exactly how would we explain to him _how _we knew?" asked Hermione.

"Same way that Harry knew in the book. And besides, we wouldn't have to tell him how we knew, just that we knew."

"I dunno, Katie, it doesn't seem like that good of an idea to me." said Hermione.

"Me niether." Ron said.

"Well it does to me." Harry said. "But I think that we should wait a little while. We shouldn't tell him for another couple of weeks or something, because then that would be really suspisious."

"Maybe after he tries to curse Katie Bell. Then we'd have an excuse as to how we knew." Ron said.

"I dunno, I still think it's a bad idea." said Hermione.

"You think what's a bad idea?" Ginny Weasley had just sat down at the table next to Hermione. Katie felt a huge jolt in her stomach, half from jealousy, and half from guilt, when she saw Ginny. She still hadn't told anyone about Harry and Ginny's relationship in the book. Then again, she didn't know if she'd ever tell them. She really liked Harry, as in more than a friend, and she didn't think that she could bear it if she saw him going out with Ginny. Then again, that was kind of selfish of her...but what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them...

"Katie? You ok?" Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were all looking at her.

"What?"

"I asked if you were ok." Harry said.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Ok, just making sure. By the way, this is Ginny Weasley. But I'm sure that you already know her." Harry laughed.

"Yeah, I do. You're Ron's younger sister. I'm Katie, Katie Vreeland."

Ginny smiled. "Nice to meet you, Katie."

Katie tried hard, she really did, to smile back at Ginny.

There was silence for a minute or two, until Harry said, "By the way, Katie, did you want to try flying again?"

"Yeah! It was really fun! I'd love to do it again!" she said, smiling.

"We could go now if you want. It's still light out." He said, gesturing to the windows.

"Yea, ok, let's go." Harry and Katie both got up.

"Hey, can I come? I really need to get practic- Ow! My foot!" Ron yelled, looking under the table.

"I think you should come back to the common room with me, Ron." Hermione said to Ron. Neither Harry nor Katie noticed when Hermione turned her head and gave Ron a small wink.

"Er...sure...I'll come."

"So you're not coming then Ron?" Harry asked slowly, trying to figure out what just happened.

Ron glanced at Hermione before answering. She gave him a look that was clearly telling him not to go. He shook his head, "No, I'll stay with Hermione, you guys go ahead."

"Alright, Katie, let's go!" On the inside, Harry was glad Ron had decided not to come. He liked being alone with Katie. He didn't know it, but Katie was feeling the exact same way. After they left, Hermione and Ron finished up with their dinner and then headed back to the common room.

"Hermione, why did you stop me from going?" asked Ron.

Hermione sighed, exasperated. "Ron, isn't it obvious?"

Ron just looked at her. "Isn't what obvious?"

She sighed again. Then she said, "Isn't it obvious that Harry and Katie fancy eachother?"

Ron was silent for a second. Then he said, "Oh! I thought there was something funny going on between them."

"And how are they going to be able to be alone together if you're there? Don't you see, that's why Harry offered to give Katie some flying lessons."

"It is?"

Hermione just laughed. "Ron, you're too funny."

Ron didn't say anything, but he looked pleased with himself.

"I think that the two of them would make a cute couple, don't you?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah, they would. Harry should make a move."

Hermione just laughed again.

"Don't you just hate it when two people so obviously like eachother, but they just won't go out?" Ron asked her. "That's _so _annoying."

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**lol, i hope that you liked how i ended the chapter. i dunno if any of you caught on to the little joke at the end (i sincerely hope that you did, 'cause if you didn't... wow, you're dumb. jk, lol). i'm a HUGE Ron/Hermione shipper, so there's going to be alot of that kind of stuff in the upcoming chapters. lol. **

**oh yeah, and i wanted to take a poll. 'cause my friend from school (no, not Christina, lol) thinks that Harry and Hermione make a better couple than Ron and Hermione do. So in your review, could you just tell me who you think is a better couple? i'd really appreciate it. thanks! lol.**


	8. The Pursuit

**Ok, i am literally slapping myself right now for not updating in about TWO WEEKS! i am soo soo soo sorry everybody, i really am. please accept my apology? ok, so anyway, i'll let you read the chapter that you've been waiting for (for two weeks)!

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The rest of the week went by pretty smoothly, and by the time it was Saturday, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Katie couldn't believe that it had gone by so fast. After lunch, the four of them could be found seated around the fireplace in the common room, finishing their homework. Later, about an hour before Harry was supposed to go for his 'lessons' with Dumbledore, they had put their homework aside and started to discuss what they thought Dumbledore had in store for Harry.

"He'll probably teach you some kind of really advanced defensive magic." Hermione said.

"Wait a minute, guys, we could just have Katie tell us what happens!" Ron said, like he just had had the most brilliant idea in the world. All three of them looked at him, then turned to Katie. She bit her lip. "I dunno if I should tell you...everything... erm..."

"Come on, you could just give us the basic information." Harry said, almost pleadingly.

"Alright. It's not defensive magic, what he's going to teach you, Harry. It's sort of, well, it has to do with...memories."

Harry just looked at her stupidly. "Memories? Like...in a pensieve or something?"

Katie nodded. "Yea, in a pensieve."

"Oh. I was expecting something more...exciting." Harry said dissapointedly.

"It's not boring, really. It's actually really important. And it'll help you out alot in the long run."

At five minutes to eight, Harry stood up and left for Dumbledore's office. Ron, Hermione and Katie continued to do their homework after he left. Five minutes later, though, the portrait hole opened and Harry stepped into the common room. "Er, Katie, Dumbledore wants you to come too."

Katie hesitated slightly, then stood up and followed Harry out into the corridor and then to Dumbledore's office. The two of them walked in silence, until they reached the gargoyle, and Harry said the password to get into Dumbledore's office. "Acid pops." The gargoyle leapt aside to let Harry and Katie enter the office. They climbed the staircase, and when they got to the top, Harry knocked on the wodden door.

"Enter."

Harry opened the door, which emmited a creaking sound. They walked into the circular room, towards the desk that was positioned directly in the center of the room.

"Sit down, Harry, Katie."

Once the two of them had sat down in the two chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk, he spoke, "Katie, I think that I am correct in saying that you have read the sixth muggle book in its entirety?"

"Yes sir."

"Which means that you already know all of the information that I will be giving to Harry in the upcoming year?"

"Yes sir."

Dumbledore sighed. "I see." He sat quietly for a minute, and Harry and Katie followed his example- they did not want to interupt his thinking. After a while, Dumbledore finally spoke. "Alright, Harry, Katie, this is what we're going to do: I am going to be giving Harry all of his lessons, just as planned. But Katie, after this particular lesson is over, I have to talk to you."

Harry and Katie nodded, Harry wondering what was in store for him in the lesson, and Katie wondering what Dumbledore had to talk to her about.

"Alright Harry..." Dumbledore began.

Katie watched and listened as Dumbledore spoke. As it always was, everything Dumbledore told Harry was exactly as Katie remembered it in the muggle book. When the lesson was over, though, the events changed from directly from the book to very unpredictable.

"Katie," Dumbledore started. "Considering that you know everything that should be happening this year at Hogwarts, I hope that you understand that not everything will be the same as in the book now that you are here."

Katie nodded.

"This shouldn't be a problem. Only minor events from the book will change. It _will _be a problem, though, if you decide to start changing major events on purpose." Dumbledore gave her a stern look.

"Er, I don't know what you mean, sir." Katie said.

"Were you or were you not planning on doing anything to change the events that take place this year?"

Katie hesitated. "Erm, well, maybe, just a little..."

"Just a little?" Dumbledore looked at her, and with a sudden jolt, Katie remembered about legilimency in the wizarding world, and that Dumbledore was an extremely accomplished legilimens.

"Erm..."

"Katie, we both know what happens to me in the end of the book."

Katie was dumbfounded that Dumbledore was taking the fact that he was going to die in about a year so calmly.

"And I sincerely hope that you will take my forewarning to not change anything this year on purpose." Katie felt shivers go down her spine as Dubledore gave her yet another one of his implacable looks.

"Yes sir."

"Alright, now that that is settled, I think it is time for the two of you to be getting back to the Gryffindor common room."

With that, Harry and Katie walked through the wooden door, down the stairs, and past the gargolye, and headed for the common room.

"Harry, you don't think that we should listen to Dumbledore, do you?"

Harry looked at her questionly. "Er, of course we should listen to him."

"No, I mean about not changing anything. I really don't want to see Dubledore die at the end of the book."

"No, niether do I. But we can't really do anything without him noticing. I mean, he's not stupid."

"No, we'll have to find a way around that. But you do still agree with me about trying to save his life?"

"Yeah, definitely."

Harry was about to say somethig else, when, turning the corner, he walked straight into Malfoy.

"Oi! Watch where you're go- oh, it's you two." Malfoy sneered.

"What are you doing up here on the seventh floor at this time, Malfoy?" Harry asked him suspiciously.

"None of your bussiness, Potter. Out of my way." Malfoy shoved past Harry and Katie and began to walk quickly down the corridor.

Harry and Katie shared a look.

"Harry, didn't Dumbledore tell you to keep your invisibility cloak with you at all times?" Katie asked him.

"I'm right behind you." Harry said as he pulled out his invisibility cloak and threw it over himself and Katie. They then started running in the direction that Malfoy had gone. Only a few seconds later, they caught up to him. He was walking down the corridor, taking long, quick strides, and he was continuously looking back over his shoulder. Clearly he was in a hurry, and he didn't want anyone to know what he was up to.

Harry and Katie followed him silently down the hallway, keeping a few paces behind him. Malfoy continued up the corridor until he reached the painting of the dancing trolls.

To anyone who didn't know what he was trying to do, Malfoy might have looked stupid, or even insane, walking back and forth in front of the painting, with a look of extreme concentration. But Katie and Harry knew better. They knew exactly what he was doing, and they were right behind him. They were both thinking the same exact thing: follow Malfoy through the door.

After three times of walking up and down in front of the painting, Malfoy stopped and grabbed the golden door handle that had magically appeared on the wall. Opening the door with as much haste as possible, Malfoy slid into the room. Katie had just enough time to slip in after Malfoy, but Harry wasn't as lucky. Just as Harry was sidling through the very narrow space between the barely open door and the wall, Malfoy closed the door- right on Harry's foot.

With watering eyes, Harry reached out and pushed the door open again, freeing his painful foot. Malfoy, whose hand was still wrapped around the door handle, was pulled forward, until he had enough sense to let go of the door. Malfoy looked at the door with an extremely confused look, but then shrugged and decided to ignore what had just happened. He shut the door all the way, locked it, turned around, and started walking into the room.

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**ok, yeah, i no that all you readers really hate me now for ending on a cliffy in addition to not updating in soooooo long. and****, i no, this chapter is probably not as long as you would have liked. actually, it's not as long as i would have liked. ah well, at least i updated, right? lol.**

**ok, so i'll go start working on the next chapter, and i PROMISE that it won't take me more than two weeks to write this one. lol.**


	9. Malfoy's Business

**i just wanna say THANKS to all my wonderful reviewers! lol. i now have over 140 reviews! wooo! lol, ok, go read now.

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_Thump thump thump._ Maloy's footsteps echoed loudly in the silent room as he took a couple tentative steps away from the door. Harry and Katie's eyes were not on their surroundings, but on Malfoy; they were watching his every move, dying to know what he was doing in The Room of Requirement so secretively.

But if they hadn't been looking at Malfoy, and had been looking around them, they would have seen an almost completely empty room. About the size of a small bedroom, the room Malfoy had chosen contained bare walls and a bare, wooden floor. Obviously, to Malfoy, it wasn't important what the room looked like, but what was inside it.

And what was inside it was a single, small wooden cabinet. To any random bystander, this would have seemed extremely odd. Why, they would ask, would a single cabinet be standing in an empty room? But Harry and Katie weren't just random bystanders, and they knew exactly what the cabinet was for. And now, they knew exactly why Malfoy was there.

Malfoy continued towards the cabinet, and when he reached it, bent down in front of it. Harry and Katie moved closer as they watched Malfoy pull his wand from the pocket of his robes.

Malfoy opened the door of the cabinet with his free hand, and began to closely examine the inside. He stuck his head in the cabinet, looking closely at the inside walls. Harry and Katie watched his eyes move over every inch of the interior of the cabinet. He ran his fingers over the wood, up and down, across, and diagonal. After half an hour of carefully investigating every wall, every corner, the floor and ceiling of the mysterious cabinet, Malfoy carefully removed his head from the cabinet and stood up, sighing with obvious depression. It was clear that he hadn't found what he was looking for.

Raising his hands and placing them on his waist, Malfoy backed up two steps and stood staring at the little box of wood. So as not to get stepped on by Malfoy, Harry and Katie hastily started to walk backwards- smack into the wall. Normally, this would have gone unnoticed, but the three of them were in a small, confined space, where the slightest noise would disrupt the muted silence of the room. At the small thump that was came from the place on the wall where Harry and Katie had backed into it, Malfoy whirled his head around, his eyes searching for the source of the sudden noise.

Harry and Katie tried their hardest to stay as quiet as possible. Maybe, Malfoy would decide that he was hearing things, and continue to go back to his work. Both Harry and Katie held their breath. If Malfoy could have heard the thump on the wall, then he would surely hear their heavy breathing. With pounding hearts, Harry and Katie remained motionless, silently praying that Malfoy would turn around and go back to the cabinet.

But their luck was against them.

Malfoy turned around all the way and continued to search for whatever had just made the noise. He was obviously suspisious by now- with Harry's foot getting stuck in the door, and now this- Katie and Harry didn't blame him. Or maybe he was just paranoid, because he certaintly knew that he wasn't supposed to be doing what he was doing now.

Harry and Katie watched as Malfoy's eyes peered around the small room. Still holding her breath, Katie's face began to turn a light shade of blue. Her eyes began to water, and when she couldn't take it anymore, she drew in a breath.

Malfoy's eyes, which had been looking in the opposite corner, snapped onto the place where Katie and Harry were standing underneath the invisibility cloak. He had obviously heard Katie breath.

Under the cloak, Harry and Katie were staring unblikingly straight at Malfoy, who stared back, though, not seeing them as they were seeing him.

Malfoy took a single step towards Harry and Katie, and narrowed his eyes at the seemingly empty stretch of wall.

Quite suddenly, Harry felt a drop of sweat trickle down from his forehead, past his cheek, and, completely against his will, off his chin and onto the floor.

Now, Malfoy wasn't just suspicious. Now, he knew that something funny was going on. Something, or someone, was there that shouldn't be.

Malfoy took three more steps forward, and both Harry and Katie found themselves face-to-face with him. Literally. They could feel his breath pushing on the cloak, they could see every mole on his face, they could have even counted his eyelashes if they had wanted to.

But right now, the last thing Harry and Katie wanted to do was count Malfoy's eyelashes. They watched in utter horror as Malfoy bet down and squatted on the floor, extended his left arm, and touched the little drop of sweat on the floor with his index finger. He lifted his finger to eye level and examined it closely. He sniffed it, then looked up.

Even though he knew that he was already up against the wall, Harry tried to take a step backwards.

Now, fitting two sixteen-year-olds underneath one small invisibilty cloak without letting their feet be seen was not an easy task.

So as Harry went to step backwards, the cloak was momentarily lifted up over Harry's right foot, so that Malfoy, who was still on the floor in a squatted position, had a temporaryily clear view of Harry's foot. He could see every little detail on the shoe, the position of all the little designs, the laces, every mark of dirt- everything.

Malfoy, who was already scared and paranoid about what he was doing in the Room of Requirement, was frightened beyond imagine when he saw the single, lone foot suddenly appear on the floor, then vanish as quickly and unexpectedly as it had come.

Harry, realizing that he had just let Malfoy see his foot, hastily covered it back up again with the invisibility cloak, turned his head towards Katie.

Likewise, Katie looked at Harry, and for the second time that night, the two of them shared a look. A look that plainly said that if they were going to get out of there anytime soon, they would have to leave within the next three seconds.

After recovering from his momentary shock of seeing a foot materialize into thin air, Malfoyquickly stood up. Just as he was reaching full height, Harry and Katie had both turned and grabbed for the doorknob.

After realizing that they weren't going to be getting anywhere with both of their hands sitting motionlessly on the door handle, Harry and Katie both removed their hands- at the same time.

They looked at eachother, and Harry silently told Katie 'I'll get it'.

Harry turned the doorknow as fast and hard as he could, pulled the door open, and he and Katie sprinted through the doorway.

Not even looking back to see if Malfoy was following them, Harry and Katie ran all the way down the hallway, only stopping after turning three corners to catch their breath.

And it was then, while the two of them were standing there, looking at eachother and breathing heavily, did they realize that the invisibility cloak had fallen off and landed on the floor right in front of the door to the Room of Requirement, and they were now standing in the middle of the hallway, completely visible to passerby.

"Harry, Malfoy's going to see that cloak on the floor, and he's going to know that it was us in the Room of Requirement with him, I know it!"

"Alright, look. We're really stuck here, 'cause we can't go get the cloak now, Malfoy would see us. But if we don't get it now, he'll find it on the floor." Harry said between breaths. "I think that we should go back the the common room for a couple minutes, then go back to the Room of Requirement and get the cloak. Malfoy should be gone by then, right?" Harry asked her, though Katie could tell by the look on his face that he knew as well as she did that that wasn't going to work.

And Harry could tell by the look on Katie's face that she thought that his idea was really pretty stupid. They both knew that there was no way that Harry's idea was going to work.

Harry was going to say something else to her, when his eyes made contact with a single, dark figure at the other end of the corrior, walking in their direction.

The two of them stared at it, scared stiff and frozen on the spot.

"Please, let it be anyone but Malfoy..." Katie whispered under her breath, and Harry was thinking the same thing. They both knew that if Malfoy ever found out that if was them who had been in the Room of Requirement with him, that they had seen what he was doing, that they knew what he was up to, they would be in _big_ trouble.

So both of them were squinting at the lone figure at the end of the hallway, hoping and praying that it wasn't Malfoy.

But once they really looked at it, Harry and Katie could tell, by the slumped way the person was walking, that it wasn't Malfoy. They both relaxed and began to breath normally again. But they still couldn't really tell who it _was_ from this far away.

But once he (or she) had taked a few more steps in their direction, Harry and Katie could just make out a curtain of black, greasy hair, parted in the middle, and surrounding a hollow, dark face. A face that whose only emotion was distinct coldness, and a face that contained black, formidable eyes. They could tell now that it was a man, and by the way he was holding himself, the by the way he was walking, there was no doubt in either Harry's or Katie's mind that the figure was none other than Severus Snape.


	10. Snape and the Cloak

**so sorry that it took so long to update, but hey, at least i didn't take over three weeks like a CERTAIN SOMONE!!! (hem hem, Christina) lol, ok, go ahead and read:

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Snape strode down the hallway, his cloak swaying this way and that as his legs brushed against it, and as air was swept inside it and pushed it around lightly. His greasy black hair was pushed back away from his face as he tore down the corridor towards the two sixth year Gryffindor students.

Harry and Katie, realizing who was walking towards them with such haste, turned, and were about to run down the hallway, in the opposite direction from which Snape was coming. But, unfortunately for them, Snape had already seen them, and he knew exactly who they were, even though he was all the way at the other end of the corridor.

"Potter! Vreeland!" Snape spat, as he advanced towards them.

Harry and Katie stopped in their tracks. They both knew that it was no use running away from Snape. Even if they outran him now, he would punish them even more severely the next time they same him in class.

Once they had turned around, Harry and Katie found that Snape's face was about three inches from theirs, and backed away quickly.

"Well well well." Snape sneered, the top of his lip curling with obvious dislike.

Katie and Harry just gulped. They knew that they were in huge trouble. But at least, they thought to themselves, Malfoy would never find out about the two of them being in the Room of Requirement with him.

"Potter and Vreeland. Out for a little walk?" Snape was obviously beyond pleased to find Harry and Katie in such a bad position.

"Erm..." Katie's mind drew a blank as she tried to think of any believable exuse to explain why the two of them were wandering around Hogwarts in the middle of the night. "Er, we were, uh, sleepwalking." Katie was mentally slapping herself. How in the world were they going to be able to pull this off if the only excuse she could come up with was 'sleepwalking'?

"I see." Once again, Snape's lip curled into a sneer.

Just like Katie, Harry was trying and failing to come up with any logical excuse to give Snape. And being under pressure like this didn't exactly help their minds concentrate.

'_Think, Harry, think!'_ Harry thought, racking his brain for an explaination.

Then suddenly, Harry remembered what he and Katie had been doing before they had encountered Malfoy, and wondering why he hadn't thought of it before, blurted it out. "We were with Professor Dumbledore." Harry said, looking Snape straight in the face, unblinkingly, and Snape stared right back.

Harry had the distinct impression that Snape was using occlumency on him, was was about to avert his eyes so Snape wouldn't be able to read his mind, but then, he realized that it didn't matter if Snape used occlumency on him, because, for once, Harry was telling the truth.

And within three seconds, it became clear to Harry that Snape _had_ been using occlumency on him. But Snape didn't look very pleased with the truth.

"And I suppose that the two of you were just walking back to the Gryffindor common room like sweet little children, were you?" Snape jeered at them.

"Yea, as a matter of a fact, we were." Harry said.

Both Harry and Katie could tell that Snape was searching for some loophole, some mistake, at which he could give Harry and Katie detention, or take away house points. And judging by the way the corners of his mouth turned down slightly, it was clear to Harry and Katie that he was having trouble finding one.

"Then I suggest that you get there now, before I take points away from Gryffindor for the two of you standing here in the corridor when you should be in your dormitories."

Extremely relieved, Harry and Katie turned and started to walk down the corridor, headed for their common room. They looked at each other and smiled, because they both knew that they had just gotten extremely lucky.

Snape watched them walk down the corridor, and once they had turned the corner, Snape turned around and proceded down the corridor in the opposite direction.

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Meanwhile, Malfoy was standing rooted to the spot, in complete confusion and bewilderment about the events that had just taken place so quickly. Standing in the doorway of the Room of Requirement, he reached up and scratched his head, wondering what in the world had just happened. 

As he thought, Malfoy let his eyes wander, first to the ceiling, then to the portrait of the dancing trolls on the opposite wall, then onto the floor, and then back up the the wall again. Then, suddenly, his eyes snapped back onto the floor, onto a shiny, silvery object strewn across the floor.

Taking a step closer to it, Malfoy squinted, wondering whether or not it was safe for him to touch it. Deciding that it was safe, he extended his arm and picked the thing up off the floor.

Discovering that it was rather bigger than he had thought at first, Malfoy raised up his other hand, so that the silvery object was now draped across both his arms.

In order to closer examine it, Malfoy bent his face a couple of inches nearer the thing that he held so delicately in his hands. His eyes ran over it, up and down, and sideways, while his mind was working double time, trying to think of what this thing was, and where it had come from.

And suddenly, his eyes grew wider and lit up slightly, as he realized what it was that he was holding. Now he knew: it was an invisibility cloak. But the light that had appeared in his eyes two seconds ago faded slightly as his mind asked him 'Where did it come from?'

Then a small crease appeared in his brow, because he couldn't come up with an answer to the question. Who did he know that owned an invisibility cloak? And then, the answer came to him in a single word: Potter. Malfoy remembered Snape telling him, back in his first year, that Dumbledore had given Harry the invisibility cloak that used to be his father's.

And when realizing that the invisibility cloak belonged to Harry, Malfoy felt hatred bubbling up inside him, hatred for Harry Potter. But the hatred soon turned into joy, because he could use this to his advantage. And turning around, Malfoy started to walk down the corridor, a perfect plan already forming in his mind.

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**I no, i no, kinda on the short side, but i'll try to make it up to you in the next chapter. and yea, i ended on yet another cliffy. sorry guys:)**


	11. Homework

**Ok, so i got alot of reviews from people who wanted the story to be more actiony. don't worry, there's plenty of action coming up...i don't know if there'll be alot in this chapter, but i assure you that there will be tons of action in the upcoming chapters. :)**

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Sitting on the floor in the Gryffindor common room, Ron and Hermione were finishing their homework while waiting for Harry and Katie to return from their first lesson with Dumbledore. Little did they know that the lesson had ended more than half an hour ago. They knew nothing of Harry and Katie's little midnight visit with Malfoy and their encounter with Snape, which would explain why they were starting to wonder why the lesson was taking so long.

"Ron, don't you think that Katie and Harry should have been back by now?" Hermione asked, looking up from her Transfiguration homework.

Ron turned his head upwards, away from the piece of parchment that he had been staring blankly at for the past ten minutes. "I dunno, but that's really not number one on my Things-To-Worry-About List."

Hermione looked at him curiously. "And what exactly _is_ number one on this list of yours?"

Ron held up the piece of parchment. "This stupid Potions essay. It's due tomorrow, and I didn't even start it yet." Ron sighed and put the paper back down on the table.

"Well why not?" Hermione asked him, while turning back to her own homework.

"Huh?"

"Why haven't you started it yet?" Hermione asked, her hand moving over her paper as she wrote the last few words of her Transfiguration essay.

"Because I have no clue what I'm supposed to be writing!" Ron said, as he threw his hands into the air in exasperation. "I mean, how the heck am I supposed to know what the twelve uses of dragon's blood are?"

Hermione, who had been rolling up her newly finished Transfiguration homework, stopped and looked at Ron with an amused expression on her face. "Well maybe if you had paid attention in class, you would know what the uses of dragon's blood are." Hermione finished rolling up her parchment and placed it in her bag. Then she looked back at Ron, and said, "But why pay attention in class, when you can be playing tic-tac-toe with Harry?" Hermione's lips curved into a smile.

"It was only three games, Hermione. And besides, tic-tac-toe is alot more interesting than listening to Slughorn go on and on about how important dragon's blood is." Ron and Hermione's eyes met, and they both started to laugh.

"No, really, though, Hermione, I have no idea what to write for this essay." Ron said, after he had finished laughing.

Hermione looked at him suspiciously. "Are you suggesting that I should help you with it?"

"Well, you _are_ finished with all of your own homework, right?" Ron asked her.

"Yes."

"And you know the twelve uses of dragon's blood, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Well then, why not help me with it?" Ron asked pleadingly.

"Because it will start out by me "helping" you, but I'll end up doing the whole thing myself." Hermione said with a shrewd smile.

"Oh come on, Hermione, please? I'll promise to do all my other homework all by myself. Please?"

Hermione sighed, reached across the table and picked up Ron's blank parchment.

"Thanks a bunch, Hermione. I dunno what I'd do without you." Ron said, smiling from ear to ear. The next few minutes were spent in silence, Hermione writing Ron's Potion's essay, and Ron working on his essay for Defense Against the Dark Arts. But the silence was broken by Hermione, "So back to my question from before, shouldn't Harry and Katie be back by now?"

"Uhh," Ron looked at his watch. "They've been gone for almost two hours now, so yea, I think they should have come back by this time."

"You don't think that they're getting into trouble, do you?" Hermione asked with a hint of anxiousness in her voice.

"Well, knowing Harry, yes." Ron said with a smile. Hermione just looked at him with a that's-not-very-funny look on her face.

Hermione was about to say something else back to him, when the portrait hole opened, and Harry and Katie walked through it. Ron and Hermione both put down their homework, and Hermione said, "So, how did it go?"

Harry and Katie just looked at her. "Erm, how did what go?"

Hermione looked at them strangely. "The lesson?"

"Oh!" Both Harry and Katie had been thinking about their encounter with Malfoy, and had completely forgot about thier earlier lesson with Dumbledore. "It was really interesting." Harry said. Then, with the help of Katie, he began to tell them everything that had happened in Dumbledore's office. Ron and Hermione listened carefully to everything they said, and after they had finished talking about that, Harry and Katie told them all about everything that had happened after that, with Malfoy and Snape. Once Harry and Katie finished explaining what they saw Malfoy doing, Hermione asked, "So, what was he doing in there, with a cabinet?"

Hermione, Ron, and Harry all looked at Katie- she was the only one that had all these answers, from the muggle book.

"Well, you see, that cabinet is one of a pair of Vanishing Cabinets. The other one of the pair is in Borgin and Burkes, and the two of them together make a kind of passageway between the Room of Requirement and the shop."

"So, you mean you could travel from Hogwarts to Borgin and Burkes through those cabinets?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, and vice versa." Katie said.

"Wait a minute." Hermione said, and Harry, Ron, and Katie all looked at her. "Anybody could get inside Hogwarts through those cabinets! What if Death Eaters came in here? Or You-Know-Who?" Hermione's eyes grew wider at the very thought of Voldemort gaining such easy access into the castle.

"Yea, anybody _could_ get in here. In the muggle book, that's how the Death Eaters got in, and Dumbledore died."

Katie could tell that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all shocked at this news by the way all three of their jaws dropped at the same moment.

"And what's worse, is that it's Malfoy's fault." Katie said.

"Malfoy? How?"

"The reason he was in the Room of Requirement tonight was because he was working on the cabinet, trying to fix it, so that the Death Eaters can get into the castle. It's all part of this big plan of Voldemort's." Katie stopped an looked at Ron and Hermione, because they both gasped.

"What?" Katie asked, looking at Ron and Hermione.

"You just said You-Know-Who's name!" Ron said, aghast.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to. It's just that, well, I've always said it before, because you know, he was just a character in a book. But that was before, you know, I came to Hogwarts and stuff." Katie said.

"Well you can't say it anymore! Now you know he's not just a character in a book, he's real and living." Ron said.

"Ron, stop it, she can say it she wants to." Harry said, defending Katie.

"What? No she can't!" Ron protested, looking at Harry now.

"And why not? I say it, so why can't anyone else? It's not like he's going to kill me just because I said his name." Harry said.

"Well, you're different. He wants to kill you anyway. But the rest of us..."

"Yea, and he wants to kill Katie too, doesn't he?"

"Not as badly as he wants to kill you, Harry. He only wants to kill Katie out of revenge for Lucius Malfoy's mistakes at the Ministry last year. If it hadn't been for Lucius, Voldemort wouldn't be after her."

"That's not the point, Ron." Harry said to Ron. Ron was about to say something back to Harry when he was intterupted be Katie, "Guys, I don't see why your're making such a big deal out of this. If I want to say Voldemort's name, then I'll say it." She looked at Harry, who was smiling, and then at Ron, who looked shocked that she had said the name again.

"Well guys, I think I'll go to bed now." Hermione said, breaking the silence.

"Wait! You can't go yet! You didn't finish my essay, and I have to hand it in tomorrow!" Ron said to Hermione.

"It's right there, on the table." She said, pointing at the roll of parchment, which was now completely covered in her handwriting.

Ron picked up the parchment, looked at it, then looked back up at Hermione, his face full of admiration. "Gosh, Hermione, I loved you." Then, realizing what had just come out of his mouth, Ron's face turned the deepest red. "I just meant that...well...thanks." He muttered.

"You're welcome." Said Hermione, whose face was just as red as Ron's. Then, picking up her book bag, said, "Night guys." and hurriedly left the room.

Ron rolled up the parchment and put it in his own bag. "You know, I think I'll go to bed too." He said, gathering up his things, then walked up the stairs, headed for the boy's dormitory.

Katie picked her Transfiguration book up off the floor and opened to the second chapter, which had all the information she needed to write her essay. Then, absentmindedly, she looked at Harry, only to find that he had been staring at her.

Katie hastily looked back down at the book that was resting in her lap, and likewise so did Harry. Katie was about to ask Harry if he had an extra quill she could borrow to write her essay, when he said, "Katie, can I ask you something?"

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**La la la chicalalio! lol, so what did u think of the chapter? Pssst! maybe you should tell me in a review! just click that little blue button down there, and you'll be on your way! lol. ok, so i hope you liked the chapter everybody. i pretty much know what i'm writing for the next one, so it should be up very shortly :)**


	12. Searching and More Planning

**I'm sorry, i lied when i said that the next chapter would be up fast. i've had alot to do this week, so it took longer to update than expected. sorry :)

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"Umm, sure, Harry." Katie said, staring into Harry's green, almond-shaped eyes, and wondering what he had to ask her that had to wait until Ron and Hermione weren't there.

"Er, I was just wondering...well...I mean, you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but...erm...in the muggle book, do Ron and Hermione...you know...go out?"

Katie, who had not been expecting that to come out of Harry's mouth, struggled to come up with an answer. "Well, no, they don't. Not this year."

"Oh. 'Cause I thought...I mean, it kinda looks like they have a thing for eachother, doesn't it?" Harry asked.

"Yea, they definitely do." Katie smiled at him, and Harry smiled back, feeling his stomach do a few backflips.

"But you know, I was thinking," Katie said, looking at Harry. "that maybe we could, sort of, get them together?"

Harry sat up straighter in his chair. "You mean me and you, get Ron and Hermione to go out this year?"

"Yeah. But, I mean, it's just an idea. We don't have to do it if you don't want to."

"No, I think that's a great idea." Harry said, smiling. "But how are we going to do it?" He added as an afterthought.

"Er, well, I haven't really though about that yet." Katie confessed.

"Well let's figure it out now." Harry said, taking his books off his lap and putting them on the table. "Let's see. First we have to pick a place to do it. Somewhere nice. Hmmm..."

"How about outside, by the lake?" Katie suggessted.

"Nah, it's to cold outside." Harry said.

"Oh! I know! Hogsmeade!" Katie's face lit up.

"Yea, Hogsmeade is perfect." Harry said, smiling. "Now, how to get them together..."

"We could...umm...send them each letters from a secret admirer." Katie suggested.

"Yeah! And tell them to meet at the same place, at the same time."

"This is gonna be so fun." Katie said, smiling at Harry. He smiled back.

Harry looked at his watch. "Hey, I just remembered! We never went back to get the invisibility cloak."

"You think Malfoy's gone by now?"

Harry thought about it for a minute. "Yea, he should be. You wanna go now?" He asked.

"Yeah, let's go." Katie siad, standing up.

Harry and Katie left the common room, and started to walk down the corridor in the direction of the Room of Requirement, where they had dropped the cloak.

"I hope we don't get caught this time." Katie said anxiously.

"Yeah, and especially not by Snape. This time, we won't have an excuse."

Once they arrived at the place on the wall where the door to the Room of Requirement would be, they started searching the floor.

"It should be around here somewhere, Katie." Harry said.

But after five minutes of searching without any luck, Harry and Katie were starting to doubt themselves.

"Harry, are you sure that we dropped it here? I mean, it could have fallen off while we were running down the hall, don't you think?"

Harry raised his head, which had been faced down at the ground, looking for the invisibility cloak. "Yeah, I guess it could have. Come on." He said, gesturing for Katie to follow him as he began walking down the corridor in the same direction that they had been running earlier that night.

The minutes passed by, five, ten, fifteen, then twenty, and still Harry and Katie didn't give up. It was only when they had been up and down the corridor five times in a half hour, did they throw in the white towel.

"Harry, it's not here." Katie said desperately.

Harry groaned. "Why did we follow Malfoy in the first place?" he asked himself, shaking his head. "We should have just went back to the common room after the lesson with Dumbledore. But no. We just _had_ to bump into Malfoy, and we just _had_ to know what he was up to."

"Do you think that he took it?" Katie asked him.

"What?"

"Malfoy. Do you think that he took the invisibility cloak?" she repeated.

"Unless it just vanished into thin air." Harry dropped his head and sighed. "You know what? I'm too tired to think about this right now. Let's go back to the common room. We'll think about all this tomorrow." And with that said, Harry and Katie slowly truged back to the Gryffindor common room.

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**eh, i really didn't like this chapter. well, i liked the begginnging, but not the end. really bad ending, i know. oh yea, and i know, it was a short chapter. oh well, though. the next one will be longer, k?**


	13. Quidditch Tryouts

**ok guys, i'm so so so so a milion time so sorry for not updating in like, four weeks!!!! please forgive me? now that the spring sports season is over, i'll be updating ALOT more often. so, i hope you enjoy the chapter that you've been waiting for for like, a moth. **

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After all that had happened Saturday night, Katie was surprised to wake up Sunday morning feeling fully rested and awake. She got out of bed, dressed, and walked down the dormitory stairs and into the Gryffindor common room, with Hermione in toe. Looking to her left, she saw Harry and Ron walking down the boys staircase. The four of them met in the middle of the common room, and then left for the Great Hall where they could enjoy breakfast. 

Harry, Ron, Katie and Hermione all filed through the doors of the Great Hall, while thier ears were immediatly filled with the noise of humdreds of students chatting as they enjoyed thier Sunday morning breakfast. Katie looked around as she followed Ron to the Gryffindor table.

Her eyes wandered over the Slytherin table, and froze on Malfoy, who was staring at her with slightly squinted eyes, and an expression that Katie interpretated to be one of concentration. She just stared straight back at him, meanwhile wondering what was going through his mind. Deciding that he was merely being his usual snide self, Katie turned her head forward. Malfoy continued to watch her as she walked all the way to the gryffindor table, and only when she had taken her seat next to Hermione did he turn his attention back to his breakfast.

Deciding that Malfoy' reasoning behind watching her like that was nothing important, Katie kept it to herself and included herself in the conversation that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were having about whether or not the four of them should visit Hagrid after Quidditch tryouts.

"But trials might take all morning, the number of people who have applied." Harry said, a bit nervously, as he lifted a fork of scrambled eggs to his mouth. "I dunno why the team's so popular all of a sudden."

"Oh come on, Harry," said Hermione, suddenly impatient. "It's not _Quiddtich _that's popular, it's you! You've never been more interesting, and quite frankly, you've never been more fanciable."

Upon hearing this, Katie quickly lowered her face over her bowl of cereal, trying to hide the fact that her face had turned a deep shade of red, and Ron gagged on a large piece of kipper. Hermione spared him one look of distain before turning back to Harry. "Everyone knows that you've been telling the truth now, don't they? The whole wizarding world has had to admit that you were right about Voldemort being back and that you really have fought him twice in the last two years and escaped both times. And now their calling you 'The Chosen One'-well, come on, can't you see why people are facinated by you?"

Harry was finding the Great Hall very hot all of a sudden, even though the cieling looked cold and rainy.

"_And_ you've been through all that persecution from the Ministry when they trying to make out that you were unstable and a liar. You can still see the marks on the back of your hand where that evil woman made you write with your own blood, but you stuck to your story anyway..."

"You can still see where those brains got hold of me in the Ministry, look." said Ron, shaking back his sleeves."

"And it doesn't hurt that you've grown about a foot over the summer, either." Hermione finished, ignoring Ron.

"I'm tall." said Ron inconsequentially.

Five minutes later, when the four of them walked outside after finishing thier breakfast, the sun was shining and it was nice and warm-perfect quidditch weather.

As they approached the field, their group of four was split into two's- Hermione and Katie went to go sit on the side to watch the tryouts, and Harry and Ron continued to the middle of the field so that Harry, as captain, could judge that students trying out for the team, and Ron could join the others that were trying for a positing on the team.

Katie followed Hermione to a spot on the bench where they would have a clear veiw of everyone. But only ten seconds later, a rather big student came and sat down right in front of them.

Katie, having read the muggle book, knew exactly who he was- Cormac McLaggen. And she also knew exactly what was going through Hermione's mind.

Katie turned her head so that she was facing Hermione, only to find that Hermione's hand was already in her pocket, reaching for her wand. Upon noticing that Kate was watching her, Hermione quickly withdrew her hand from her pocket. Katie just smiled and nodded her head towards McLaggen, silently telling Hermione to go on.

Hermione smiled, reached back in to her pocket, and took out her wand.

Meanwhile, on the field, Harry was jsut finishing telling the students to form groups of ten and, one group at a time, fly around the perimeter of the Quiddith field. As the benches slowly got emptier and emptier as everyone started following Harry's directions, Katie and Hermione looked at McLaggen, who was standing up slowly- with some dificulty. He then wobbled over to the line of students, walking and stumbling as if he was drunk. Katie and Hermione turned thier heads towards eachother, then burst out laughing.

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**hope u liked the chapter!! i'll try to update asap!!**


	14. Ginny

**I no, i no, probably not your idea of updating quickly, right? i'm sorry, but i'm trying :)**

**hope u like this chapter as much as i do**

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By the time the students trying out for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team flew around the field in groups of ten, Hermione and Katie had stopped laughing. They were sitting on the side, watching the tryouts go on. 

First to go were the beaters, and after Harry had chosen two students to take those positions, he had the chasers go next. One after the other, Katie watched as many unfarmiliar faces went by on brooms, student after student trying for the one of the three chaser positions. But watching so many unfarmiliar faces go by, Katie finally saw some one she knew: Ginny Weasley.

As soon as Ginny stepped onto the field, Katie eyes traveled over to Harry, trying to determine whether or not he seemed interested in her at all. Katie remembered that it was about this time of year in the muggle book when Harry started "noticing" Ginny.

Katie's eyes flicked back and forth between Harry and Ginny, watching thier every move. She watched as Ginny glanced at Harry before mounting her broom, but Harry didn't even notice, because his head was beant downward; he was writing something on the clipboard that was being held in his left hand. But after he finished writing, he turned his head up at Ginny, and nodded slightly, telling her that he was ready for her to start.

Katie finally pulled her eyes off Harry, and moved them back over to Ginny, who was racing down the Quidditch field on her broom, quaffle in hand. As she approached the end of the field where the keeper was hovering between the goal posts, she raised the hand that was holding the quaffle, extended her arm, and let go of the ball, sending it flying through the air and then through the left hoop.

As Katie watched the red ball soar through the air, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. By the end of the year, Katie knew that Harry would be head over heels in love with Ginny, and Ginny the same.

But at the same time, Katie felt kind of guilty. She knew for a fact that Ginny had liked Harry for the past six or seven years. She had also come to realize that she herself liked Harry. And she couldn't help but hope that Harry liked her back. Hence the guilt.

And what if, by some small ity bity chance, Harry _did_ like her back?, Katie asked herself. And her answer came suit: If she went out with Harry, then she would be taking away any of Ginny's chances of going out with him at the end of the year, which was exactly how it was supposed to go, according to the muggle book.

But then again, Katie thought, if Harry like _her_ instead of Ginny, then she would be helping the both of them out. She would be preventing their cruel and unfair break-up, which would happen at the end of the year, from ever taking place.

This brought a smile to Katie's face, because if she _did_ go out with Harry, she would not only get what she wanted, but she would also be saving Ginny from the pain and suffering that she had to endure at the end of the year in the muggle book.

"YES!!!"

Katie was sharply pulled out of her thoughts by Hermione, who was screaming in her ear, along with everyone else who had come to watch the tryouts. Katie looked around for the source of the cheering, and when her eyes found the newly-formed Gryffindor Quidditch team, she realized what she had just missed.

Standing around Harry were the seven quidditch team members, with Ron among them. While Katie had been thinking about Harry and Ginny, she had completely missed Ron tryout. Oh well, she thought, she had read the entire thing in the muggle book about a hundred times, so she knew exactly what had happened.

"Oh my god, Katie, he made it! Did you see that? He made it!" Hermione sounded positively delighted.

"Yeah, I saw. He did a really good job." Katie lied. She then got up and followed Hermione over to the team to congratulate Ron.

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**ok i no, a little on the short side. next chappie will be longer, k? oh, and i'll try to take less time updating :D**


	15. Hagrid

**wow, i'm already on chapter fifteen! and the story's not even halfway done yet! long way to go...**

**thanks to all my lovely reviewers! luv ya:D**

**oh, and, regretfully, i don't own Harry Potter. :(**

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After Harry had finished scheduling the first practice for the newly formed Gryffindor Quidditch team, (he is Captain, after all), he, Ron, Hermione, and Katie all decided that they would go visit Hagrid. After all, they had been back for about a week now and hadn't seen him properly, and it would also be Katie's first time actually meeting him, face to face. 

Harry, Ron and Hermione were absolutely delighted about the fact that they were going to see Hagrid, but they were also a little worried. After the incident in the Great Hall involving Harry, Ron, and Hagrid (who, wrongly, had thought that the three of them would sign up for his class this year), they weren't too sure that he would be as pleased to see them as he normally would.

Katie on the other hand, having read the muggle book, knew exactly what would happen when Hagrid saw Harry, Ron and Hermoine when they showed up at his hut, so she wasn't really worried for the same reasons Harry, Ron, and Hermione were. The reason _she_ was worried was that this would be her first encounter with Hagrid, and she knew from the book that he wasn't in the brightest of moods.

So as she followed the trio across the Hogwarts grounds, Katie wondered what Hagrid's reaction would be. Would he be happy, meeting a new student, or would his already bad temper overcome his joy, and decide, right there, that he didn't like her?

Well, Katie thought, I'll just have to hope for the best and see what happens.

When Katie pulled herself out of her own thoughts, the first thing that she heard was Ron, talking about his amazing performance on the Quidditch field ten minutes before.

"I thought I was going to miss that fourth penalty," he was saying happily. "Tricky shot from Demelza, did you see, had a bit of a spin on it-"

"Yes, yes, you were magnificent." said Hermoine, looking amused.

"I was better than McLaggen anyway," said Ron in a highly satisfied voice. "Did you see him lumbering off in the wrong direction on his fifth? Looked like he'd been Confunded..."

To Harry's surprise, Hermione turned a very deep shade of pink at these words. Confused, Harry looked at Katie, who looked away quickly, trying to hide the smile that was creeping onto her face. Harry just shrugged and cast it out of his mind, because they were coming closer to Hagrid's hut.

As they got closer, they could see that the great gray hippogriff, Buckbeak, was tethered in front of Hagrid's cabin. He turned his huge head towards them as they approached him.

"Oh dear." said Hermione nervously. "He's still a bit scary, isn't he?"

"Oh come off it, you've ridden him before, haven't you?" said Ron.

Buckbeak then stood up and clicked his razor-sharp beak at them. Katie, who was already aprehensive of the creature, gasped and took a few steps backward.

"It's ok, he won't harm you." Harry told her. "Watch." He stepped forward and then bowed low to the hippogriff with out breaking eye contact or blinking. After a few seconds, Buckbeak sank into a bow too.

Harry turned and gave Katie a wide grin, then turned his attention back to Buckbeak. "How are you?" Harry asked him in a low voice. "Missing him? But you're ok here with Hagrid, aren't you?"

"Oi!" said a loud voice.

Hagrid had come striding around the corner of his cabin wearing a large flowery apron and carrying a large sack of potatoes. Even though Katie had never actually seen Hagrid in real life, there was no mistaking that huge, giant-sized profile.

"Git away from him! He'll have yer fingers- oh. It's yeh lot." Hagrid stood looking at them for a split second, then turned and strode into his cabin, slamming the door behind him.

"Oh dear." said Hermione, looking stricken.

"Don't worry about it." Said Harry grimly. He walked over to the door and knocked loudly.

"Hagrid, open up! We want to talk to you!"

There was no sound from within.

"If you don't open the door, we'll blast it open!" Harry said, pulling out his wand.

"Harry!" said Hermione, sounding shocked. "You can't possibly-"

"Yeah, I can!" said Harry. "Stand back-"

But before he could say anything else, the door flew open again as Harry and Katie had both known it would, and there stood Hagrid, glowering down at them and looking, despite the flowery apron, positively alarming.

"I'm a teacher!" Hagrid roared at Harry. "A teacher Potter! How dare yeh threaten ter break down my door!"

"I'm sorry _sir_." Said Harry, emphasizing the last word as he stowed his wand back inside his robes.

Hagrid looked stunned. "Since when have yeh called me 'sir'?"

"Since when have you called me 'Potter'?"

"Oh, very clever," growled Hagrid. "Very amusin'. That's me outsmarted, innit? Alright, come in yeh ungreatful little..." Mumbling darkly, he stood back to let them pass. Hermione scurried in after Harry, looking rather frightened, and Katie scurted in behind Ron.

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**ok ok, i'm sorry, another short chapter. :( but the next one will be much much longer, i garuntee it :)**


	16. Katie and Hagrid Introduced

**sry it took a while to update again, but my computer was broken for a while, and i also had finals that i had to study nonstop for, so could you possibly find it in your hearts to forgive me? lol, enjoy the chapter!**

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"So, what brings ya here t'night?" Hagrid asked as Harry, Ron, Hermione and Katie sat timidly in the small wooden chairs that surrounded Hagrid's UFO-sized table, and as Hagrid took the big armchair, which emitted a small creaking noise as he sank into it. "Rekon I'm lonley or summat?"

"We just wanted to come see you!" Hermione squeaked.

Hagrid just snorted.

"We wanted to take you class this year, you know, but none of us could fit it into out scheduels." Harry told him.

Hagrid was about to say something back to him, when, from the corner of Hagrid's cabin, came a strange squelching noise. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Katie all looked at it, and four gasps of horror were sounded in the cabin.

"Hagrid! What _is_ that?" Ron asked, repulsive.

"They're ."

"And they grow into..."

"They won't grow into nuthin. They're for Aragog." Then, without any kind of warning, Hagrid burst into tears.

Hermione ran around the table to comfort him, taking the long way, avoiding the , and began to pat him on the shoulder.

"It's Aragog.." Hagrid sobbed through his tears. "I think...I think he's dyin'..." Hermione looked at Harry, Ron, and Katie, completely lost for words. Harry, Ron and Hermione then began to give him words of comfort, and started to cheer him up. Before long, Hagrid was his normal, cheery self again.

"Sorry I've been acting like this," he said to them. "It's just, we've been together for so long..." Hagrid got up to pour then some tea.

Katie was jsut wondering how she was going to introduce herself, and whether Hagrid had seen her yet or not, when he turned around, holding a tray with a teapot and cups, and started.

"Uh, Hagrid, this is Katie Vreeland." Harry said before Hagrid could say anything himself.

"Hi." Katie said awkwardly.

Hagrid set the tray down on the table with a soft clunk, then held out his hand. Katie took it, and had her own hand crushed by Hagrid's enthusiastic shaking.

"Nice ter meet yeh, Katie."

Katie said, "Nice to meet you too.", or rather, she tried; Hagrid was still shaking her hand, and her whole body was moving up and down.

Then, with a little help from Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Katie began to tell Hagrid her long story, about how she had to start at Hogwarts in her sixth year instead of her first, because of the whole mix-up with the letters. After ten minutes of nonstop talking, Katie finally finished.

"So, Katie, how d'you like it here at Hogwarts?" Hagrid asked her.

"Oh, it's amazing here, I love it. I think I must be dreaming, this place is so cool. I never would have imagined that a place like this could have ever existed before I came here."

Hagrid, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all smiling at her.

"And everyone here is so nice. All the students, and all the teachers and everybody."

" 'Cept the Slytherins." Ron said, and everybody laughed.

After a long while, the four of them said good-bye to Hagrid, leaving him in a much better mood than he had been when they had first gotten there.

They walked up the sloping lawn to the castle, thier stomachs no longer growling of hunger after the food they had eaten at Hagrid's. And since they weren't hungry, they decided that they would just skip going to the Great Hall for dinner, and go straight up to the Gryffindor common room.

When they walked into the Entrance Hall, they saw that small crowd of people was leaving the Great Hall; dinner was ending, and everyone was heading to their common rooms to either sleep, or to finish up the homework that they had had for a week, but still hadn't gotten around to doing.

Katie scanned her eyes over the slowly dispersing crowd unconcernedly, and she followed Ron toward the stairs. She was just about to turn her had and face forward, when she spotted Malfoy, who had been staring at her, his eyes squinted slightly, and his brow furrowed. Upon noticing that she had seen him, Malfoy quickly turned his head, but Katie could see that he was deep in thought.

She continued walking, and didn't say anything to Harry, Ron, or Hermione about the strange way Malfoy was acting.

She merely bade Harry and Ron goodnight when the four of them got to the common room, and then followed Hermione up the stairs to her dormitory, deep in thought.

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**So, watcha think of the chapter? huh huh? Review? Please:D**


	17. Katie's Reflection

**ok, i no, the last chapter was probably like, my shortest ever. and don't get mad at me for this- this chapter's probly going to be pretty short too. sry! but this one is kinda an important chapter, though, so pay attention. ;)**

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When Katie woke up the next morining, she sat up, stretched her arms over her head, and extended her legs as far as they would go, trying to rid her extremities from the tiredness that was threatening to creep back into her body and make her fall back onto her pillow again. She got up off her four-poster bed, turned to her trunk, and pulled out her Hogwarts robe. After showering, she put it on, and then sat on her bed, thinking. 

She looked at the little clock on her bedside table, not really seeing the 6:30 that was glowing red on it.

Something was nagging at her form the back of her mind. Hard as she tried, though, she couldn't remember what it was. 'Something that happened last night' she thought, trying to recall what she had been doing before she had went to bed.

And then it came to her: Malfoy.

Last night was the second time that she had seen him watching her like that. 'But why was he doing it?' she asked herself.

He can't _fancy_ me, she said quietly to herself. She shuddered at the very idea. They _were_ brother and sister, after all.

"Then why?" She vioced aloud. Then, realizing that she was the only one in her dormitoy that was awake, she quickly turned around, to make sure that she han't woken anybody up. Her eyes roved over Hermione, then Lavender, and finally over Parvarti, who were all sound asleep in their beds.

Katie turned back around, her puzzled mind going back to Malfoy. It was very unnerving, that he kept staring her down like this. 'And if only I knew why!'

Extremely befuddled now, she picked up the brush off her bedside table and walked over to the mirror that the four girls shared. She sat down on the small pink chair that was in front of it, began to brush her hair, then raised her eyes to the mirror, so that she was looking straight at her own reflection.

After looking at her own troubled reflection in the mirror for a minute or two, Katie felt a horrible jolt in the pit of her stomach as she saw the multitude of uncanny similarities between herself and Draco Malfoy.

Sure, she knew that the two of them were twins, but in the whole past week of being at Hogwarts, the number of times she had come in contact with him in class, and the number of times she had looked at him, she had never noticed how herself and Malfoy looked so alike.

'It's like looking at a female version of him' she thought to herself, and then, as she felt her stomach give another painful lurch, she realized that that's what she _is_: a female version of Malfoy.

She looked into the mirror, and saw that she was wearing a very troubled, thoughtful expression- the same exact expression that she saw Malfoy wear the past two times that she had caught him looking at her. 'If you put the two of us next to eachother,' Katie thought, 'we would look uncomfortably alike.'

She looked at her own eyes. She knew that Malfoy's eyes had a colder tint to them, and was very relieved when she saw that hers showed warmth instead of coldness.

But on a second glance, she saw that the shape of her eyes, and the size, were unmistakably almost identical to Malfoy's.

'We even have the same eye color.' Katie thought, meanwhile feeling her stomach drop as if she had missed a step going up a set of stairs.

'But his are more silvery, and grayish blue, and mine are just plain blue.' She told herself. But in the very back of her mind, she knew that she was just saying that to convince herself that herself and Malfoy weren't _exactly_ the same.

Katie mover her eyes over her other facial features, and became increasingly more angry and upset- everywhere she looked, she saw Malfoy's nose, Malfoy's ears, Malfoy's chin...

Disgusted with herself, Katie stood up angrily and shoved the chair away.

"I am _not_ like him!" she practically shouted, putting more emphasis on the word 'not'.

The chair made a squeeky scraping noise as it flew across the floor and finally crashed into her bed and toppled over, and not in any way quietly.

Hermione, Lavender, and Parvarti all woke with starts.

"What was that?" Lavender asked, alarmed; she was just sitting up in bed, and could still hear the grogginess in her voice.

Katie apologised for waking them up, walked over to the chair that was now lying on the floor on its side, picked it up, and carried it back over to the mirror, placing it down a little harder than she intended.

She then walked down the stairs of the girl's dormitory and into the Gryffindor common room, and sat down very moodily in one of the chairs by the fire.

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**hmmm, i liked this chapter. you get to see a bit of an angrier side of Katie in this one, and in all the other chapters, she was all sweet and nice and stuff. **

**i won't give you any hints now, but this story is going to start picking up very very soon. i just wrote one of the upcoming chapters yesterday, and its really really good. there's lots of plot twists coming up, so be ready... (dun dun dun)**


	18. Breakfast and Afterwards

**Wow, i really can't believe that i'm already on chapter 18! this is gonna be a loooong story...**

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By the time Harry, Ron, and Hermione had all finished getting dressed and came down to the common room, Katie had calmed down a bit, but she was still absolutley disgusted that she had so easily been able to find so many similarities between herself and Malfoy. 

The four of them walked down to the Great Hall together to eat breakfast before going to thier first class. When Katie entered the Great Hall behind Hermione and followed by Ron, she looked over at the Slytherin table; her eyes sought Malfoy, and after only about two seconds, she found him.

The reason why it took such a short time for her to find him amidst all the other Slytherin students eating breakfast, was because his face was the only one that was turned towards her. Everyone else's faces were turned either straight down at their food, or to thier neighbors, talking, while Malfoy's was turned straight at the entrance to the Great Hall, straight at Katie.

The past two times that Katie had seen Malfoy looking at her like that, he had looked away very quickly, as though he was trying to pretend that he hadn't been looking at her at all. But this time was different. This time, he stared straight at her, and didn't look away. She stared right back, barely blinking. Subconsiously, she registered the similarities between herself and him, but didn't give it too much thought, because most of her brain was working on why he kept looking at her; what was his reasoning?

Finally, Katie couldn't take it any more, and she looked away. Malfoy looked away also, but he didn't go back to eating his food, but instead started picking at it, as though his mind was somewhere other than the eggs and piece of toast on his plate.

As they came upon the Gryffindor table, Katie took a seat next to Harry, and across from Ron. Hermione took the seat next to Ron, so that she was sitting across from Harry.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all started piling food onto their plates, Ron and Harry taking a bit more than Hermione. Katie, on the other hand, just sat there, staring into the bottle of orange juice that was sitting in front of her.

Harry was just about to ask Katie to pass the butter, which was lying on the table right next to her arm, when he noticed that she wasn't eating anything.

"Er, Katie, aren't you hungry?" he asked her. She didn't respond; her mind was on Malfoy, and she wasn't paying any attention to anything that was going on outside of her thoughts.

"Katie?" Harry asked again. Hermione and Ron also turned thier attention from their breakfast to Katie. Harry looked at them, puzzled. Ron hit her, not hard, on the shoulder and said, "Katie!"

This got her attention. "What?"

"What's the matter? I just said your name twice and I don't think you even heard me." Harry told her.

"Oh, did you? Sorry." Katie said distractedly. She looked over at Malfoy, obviously not concerned that she hadn't been paying attention for the past five minutes, but Harry, Ron, and Hermoine were.

"Erm, is something bothering you Katie?" Hermione asked her.

Katie didn't respond right away, causing Harry, Ron, and Hermione to believe that she had gone off into la la land again. Ron was just about to hit her again, when she said, "D'you think that I'm anything like Malfoy?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were taken aback. "No, why?"

Katie tore her eyes off Malfoy, who was finally starting to eat again, and looked at Harry. "I was just thinking, since, you know, we're twin brother and sister and all." Harry just looked at her with a what-are-you-talking-about look.

"I was looking in the mirror this morning," she continued. "and I noticed that I have the same facial features as Malfoy." She paused, then she added, "Don't I?"

Ron looked at Katie, then at Malfoy, then at Katie, then at Malfoy, and so on, until he finally said, "Yeah, now that you mention it, you guys do look pretty similar. Yeah, you can definitly tell that you're twins."

Seeing the depressed look on Katie's face, Harry said, "Not that it's a bad thing...I mean, at least you're not all stuck up and snobby like he is." This made Katie smile a teeny bit.

"Who cares if you _look_ like him, your personalities are completely different. Opposite, actually." Harry told her.

Hermione and Ron nodded thier heads in agreement, then went back to thier breakfasts. Harry made sure that neither one of them was listening, then he leaned a little closer to Katie and wispered in her ear, "And I think you're much prettier than Malfoy."

Katie felt her face go scarlet. She looked at Harry, practically beaming, and saw that he was smiling at her, his face just as red as hers.

Now that she was in a much better mood, Katie began to put some pancakes on her plate, and started to eat, only just realizing how hungry she actually was.

After the four of them had all finished eating, they proceded back upstairs to the Gryffindor common room to get their books, and then to the fourth floor for Transfiguration. And after Transfiguration came Potions down in the dungeons, and then after that, Gryffindors had their before-lunch break. Ron and Hermoine had to go do Prefect Duty for the first half of the break, so Harry and Katie went up to the Gryffindor common room to get started on some of thier homework.

But when they got into the common room, it was to find it surprisingly full. Katie and Harry shared one of the big armchairs by the fire. As they began to take out thier books that they would need for their homework, thier shoulders kept bumping clumsily into each other.

Then, after about five minutes of trying and failing to work on their Potions essay, they realized that they wouldn't be able to finish it without Hermione's help. So, they began to talk.

"So, Katie, what else is going to happen this year?" Harry asked as he placed his unused quill on top of his unwritten essay.

"Hmmm, well, what do you want to know about?" Katie asked him.

"I dunno, umm, tell me what happens to me by the end of the book."

Katie hesitated, not knowing whether or not she should tell him about his upcoming relationship with Ginny...She thought it over, then quickly made up her mind. "Well, you're going to learn alot of information about Voldemort in your lessons with Dumbledore..."

"Do I find out why Dumbledore's been gone so much lately?" He asked.

"Yes, and once, more towards the end of the year, you go with him."

"Oh cool! Where do we go?" Harry said, starting to get excited.

"Sorry, can't tell you that right now." She said, smiling at the slightly dissapointed look on Harry's face. "But you'll learn all about it in one of your lessons later on." She reassured him.

"Ok, so what else happens to me?"

Katie thought for a moment. But when she opened her mouth to speak, Harry said, "Hang on, I have a question."

"Ok, go ahead."

"Alright," Harry took a deap breath. "This year, er, do I, erm, get a girlfriend?" Harry's face turned slightly pink.

Katie, who was not at all prepared to answer this sort of question, and didn't have much time to think over what her answer was going to be, just simply went with her decision from before, "No." To her surprise, Harry's face broke into a grin. "No, are you sure? I don't go out with one person this entire year?" He asked eagerly.

"Nope." Katie answered, feeling more guilty than she'd ever felt in her life.

"Ok, good, because I was thinking of getting one." He said, casting a furtive glance at Katie.

'Oh no, please not Ginny', Katie thought, but out loud she said, "Oh really, who?", trying to keep her voice casual, as if she really didn't care.

Harry smiled at her. "You."

Then, before Katie could register what he had just said, she felt his lips make contact with hers.

Every thought, every feeling, and every emotion was swept out of Katie's mind in an instant, her brain had gone numb with a mixture of shock and happiness, and she could register only one thing: _Harry Potter was kissing her._

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**awww, i've been waiting for that kiss for a while now. :) this was a fun chapter to write, i liked it (and i hope that you guys liked it too) oh and you should be happy, cuz this one is pretty long. much better than my past, like, three. i'll try and update asap! ROCK ON!**


	19. Katie meets Ginny

**Dealthly Hallows- only a little while longer guys! i dunno about you guys, but i'm soooooooooooooooooooo excited!!!! lol **

**oh, and just so you guys no, when there's a sentence surrounded by these: ' ' , that means that Katie's _thinking_ it, not saying it out loud. But when a sentence is surrounded by these: " " , that means that she _is_ saying it out loud. K? I'm sure that everyone knows this, but, you know, i just thought that i'd clear it up, so that those of you who didn't know it won't get confused. cuz if u didn't know already, well, it kinda would have messed up the whole chapter. ok, so on with chapter 19! **

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_Recap of last chapter: _

_Then, before Katie could register what he had just said, she felt his lips make contact with hers._

_Every thought, every feeling, and every emotion was swept out of Katie's mind in an instant, her brain had gone numb with shock, happiness, and excitement, and she could just register only one thing: Harry Potter was kissing her._

When they finally pulled apart, Harry was relieved to see that Katie was beaming at him. Then, it was Harry's turn for a surprise: Katie wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for another kiss. This time, when they pulled thier faces away from each other, it was to find that the entire common room had gone deathly quiet. Harry raised his eyebrows at her and gave his head a small jerk towards the door; Katie understood this perfectly. She let Harry lead her be the hand out of the common room, and then out onto the grounds, by the lake. And that was where they stayed for the rest of the break, and even half-way through lunch, before they realized what time it was.

When they walked into the Great Hall and went to join Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table, Katie didn't even notice that Malfoy was staring at her again, but if she had, she wouldn't have cared one bit.

"Where have you guys been all this time?" Ron asked as Harry and Katie approached the Gryffindor table and took seats across from Ron and Hermoine.

Harry and Katie shared a look, and Harry said, "You know, just around." He smiled at Katie, and she giggled.

Ron and Hermione looked back and forth between them. "No, really where were you?" Hermione asked them.

Harry was just about to answer her, when Dean and Seamus came over and sat next to Ron and Hermione. "They were busy." Dean said, winking at Katie.

Ron and Hermoine looked more confused than ever. "...With homework?" Hermione asked slowly, wondering what else they could have been busy with.

Seamus laughed. "Yeah right," he said. "More like snogging."

Ron gagged on his pumpkin juice. "What?!"

Hermione's eyebrows were raised. "Were you really?" She asked Harry and Katie.

They both smiled. "Yeah."

Ron, who was done choking now, said, "So...so you guys are going out now?"

"Yep."

Ron gaped at them, open-mouthed, till the bell rang a few seconds later, signaling the end of lunch.

"Well, we'd better go, we don't want to be late to Potions." Harry said, trying hard not to laugh at the look on Ron's face.

After taking a quick trip upstairs for their books, the sixth year Gryffindors truged back downstairs for double Defense Against the Dark Arts. On a normal day, Katie would have been thoroughly upset at the idea of sitting in a classroom for two hours with the two people at Hogwarts that she liked the least- Snape and Malfoy. But today wasn't a normal day for Katie- she didn't think that even Snape could dampen her bright spirits.

After eating dinner, it was back upstairs to the common room again for Harry, Ron, Hermione, Katie, and most of the other Gryffindors, and Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Katie had been lucky enough to get the best chairs by the fire. Two hours later, Hermione finished her own homework, and began to help the other three with theirs. And a little while later, after all of them had finished, and they went upstairs to go to bed.

But Katie couldn't sleep. Not after what had happened this afternoon. So she went back down to the common room again. There was a surprising number of people there; she went to go sit in one of the only two empty armchairs by the fire, only to find that someone was already sitting there.

That someone was the last person that Katie needed to see right now, especially after this afternoon. It was a girl, a girl who had long, red hair and freckles.

Katie, recognizing who it was imediately, was about to turn and go back upstairs- maybe she hadn't seen Katie yet. But she had.

"Oh, hi Katie." Ginny Weasley said, smiling at her. "D'you wanna sit down? Hang on, I'll move my stuff..." Ginny said; she had a few pieces of parchment on the chair next to hers that was evidently going to be used for her homework. She picked it up and put it on the table in front of her. "There you go."

Silently thinking that the best thing to do would be to leave quickly, (Katie didn't want Ginny to find out about her newly-formed relationship with Harry, her of all people) but, having no alternative choice, she sat down in the chair that Ginny had just cleaned off.

"So," Ginny said, dipping her quill in her ink bottle, "how d'you like Hogwarts?"

"Oh, it really nice here." Katie said awkwardly. 'Whatever you do, don't let the conversation turn to Harry' she thought. But it was too late for that.

"You seem to be getting on well with Harry, Ron, and Hermione." Ginny said.

"Oh, yeah, they're all really nice." Katie said. 'So much for not talking about Harry with Ginny...' The little voice in Katie's head told her. But little did she know, it was about to get worse- alot worse.

"You know, Katie," Ginny said, "If we're going to be friends, you might as well know that I fancy Harry. A lot." Ginny stopped doing her homework for a moment to look up at Katie.

"Oh...do you?" Katie asked, silently praying that Ginny hadn't been one of the many people who had seen Harry kissing her earlier that day... Apparently not, Katie decided, because Ginny went on, "Yeah, I've had a huge crush on him since I was, like, ten." Ginny told her.

Katie knew that Ginny didn't know about the Harry Potter books in the muggle world, which meant Katie would have to act like she didn't know a thing about, well, anything. Katie was going to have to pretend that she didn't know about anything that had ever happened before the start of term this year, when she had first step foot in Hogwarts.

"Wow, erm, that's a really long time." Katie said lamely, because she couldn't think of anything else to say. Ginny laughed, and Katie forced herself to laugh also.

"Yeah, it is, isn't it?" Ginny said. "I've gone out with other guys, though. Hermione told me to let loose around Harry for a while. Did you know that I used to not even be able to talk around him?" Ginny said, laughing at her own shyness around Harry.

Katie's honest answer was 'yes', but she knew that she couln't give it. So instead, she said, "No, I didn't know that." Again, she felt a rather forced laugh come out of her own mouth, a laugh that sounded most unlike her own.

"But I took Hermione's advice, obviously, and now me and him are friends." Ginny said. "But I would give anything to be more than just friends with him." She added sadly.

"Does he know you like him?" Kaite asked. Of course, Katie knew the real answer, but she figured that, if she was going to pretend she didn't know, she would have to ask stuff like this.

"Oh, yeah, he knows I like him...But I know he doesn't feel the same way." Katie heard a bit of a dissapointed edge to Ginny's voice when she said this.

"Well, how do you know?" Katie asked her. Then she mentally slapped herself. 'How does she know? Because he's going out wiht another girl, that's how...And that other girl just happens to be me.' Katie thought.

"Oh, well he's gone out with other people, too. I remember, in my fourth year, he went out with Cho Chang. D'you know her?"

"No." 'Well', thought Katie, 'that's not a total lie, I mean, I've never actually met Cho...'

"Ah well. She's a seventh year Ravenclaw. And she's really pretty." Ginny said, with what was unmistakably bitterness.

Katie tried to make a simpathetic face. "I'm sure she's just as pretty as you are. I mean, you're not exactly ugly, are you?" Katie said, trying to cheer her up.

"Oh, well, yeah, I guess, but that's not the point...I was so jealous when Harry went out with her, though."

Katie was feeling that the conversation was rapidly going back into dangerous waters again, and she wasn't wrong...

"I dunno what I'd do if he went out with someone else again. Cry alot again, I suppose...maybe throw myself out of the Astronomy Tower..." Then, seeing the apalled look on Katie's face, she said, "I was kidding!" Ginny started to laugh, and Katie joined in. But her laughter this time was even more forced and sounded even less like her own than it did last time.

"Were you really that upset when he went out with Cho?" Katie asked her, trying to imagine what Ginny's reaction would be when she found out that Katie was now going out with Harry...she really didn't want to think about it, but she had to; she didn't want Ginny to hate her, but she didn't think that she'd be able to bring herself to crush Ginny's heart like that...She should have thought about this before she had kissed Harry back this afternoon...'But no', Katie thought, 'I'm_ helping _her', rather forcefully. She had already gone over all this in her head at the Quidditch tryouts...

"Oh, yeah, I cried for hours." Ginny said with a remenicent look on her face. "I think that that's the closest I've ever come to having my heart broken... And if it happens for a second time, well, like I said, I really don't know what I'd do."

Katie really didn't know what to say to this. If Ginny was that upset about Harry going out with another girl before, how bad would Katie be hurting her if _she_ went out with Harry?

Katie's troubled thoughts must have shown on her face, because Ginny said, "Katie, you all right?"

Katie snapped out of her reverie. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine...er, no, actually, I have a bit of a headache...I think I'll go to bed now, Ginny. See you tomorrow." She said, standing up. She didn't really have a headache, but she was really disliking this conversation.

"Oh, alright, good night, then." Ginny said, then turned back to her homework.

Katie could hear the scratching of Ginny's quill on her parchment as she walked towards the sixth year girls' dormitory, but she wasn't paying any attention to that right now... When she had first told Ginny that she had a headache, it had been a lie, but now she could feel a slowly-growing throbbing pain in her left temple.

And her headache wasn't the only thing that was causing her body pain right now; she had a huge, twisting knot in her stomach, and she didn't exactly need to be a genius to know that it was from guilt.

Thinking back to her childhood, that is, before she had found out that she was a witch, Katie knew that she had never really done anything to one of her friends or family members that would hurt them or cause her to feel guilty about it, as she did now.

Which made this whole thing alot worse, because, since she wasn't a generally mean person, doing something like this wasn't natural for her, it was something she'd never encountered, something she'd never had to deal with. She supposed that someone who was naturally mean in their nature- someone like Malfoy- would have no trouble at all acting this was to one of thier fellow classmates. But Katie wasn't like that. She wasn't mean or nasty, and she couldn't honestly remember too many incidents in her past where she had badly hurt someone's feelings.

Katie had been so deeply immersed in her thoughts that she didn't notice that she had already in her dormitory and had started to put on her pajamas. Getting into bed a few short minutes later, she lay there with her head on her pillow, the thought of 'sleep' not possible at all.

She could just see it now, Ginny finding out that Katie and Harry were going out, after Ginny had just told her all about how she fancied him so much, and how much it would hurt her if she saw him going out with another girl... It would probably have to happen eventually, Katie thought sadly, Ginny wasn't stupid, she was going to find out sooner or later that Harry was going out with her. 'Maybe I should have told her' Katie thought to herself. She was sure that sooner was better than later when it came to Ginny finding out about her relationship with Harry. 'And I suppose she'd rather that I tell her, than having the shock of entering the common room one day to find Harry kissing me...'

And even as the thought of herself wrapped around Harry in one of those cozy armchairs by the fire in the common room popped into her head, she couldn't help feeling very happy- much happier than she should feel at the moment. But that happiness only lasted about two seconds, before the look on Ginny's face as she sat, watching, horrified popped into her head also...

Katie groaned at turned over in her bed. _Why_ did this have to be happening to her right now? _Why?_ Katie thought back to that afternoon, when she had been so happily kissing Harry, in the common room, then down by the lake...everything had seemed so perfect then, and now, now it was all messed up. Katie was sure that she would lose her friendship with Ginny when Ginny found out, and this made her really upset. She had really like Ginny, and she was sure that Ginny liked her, too. But now, Ginny was going to hate her.

'I don't blame her, though.' Katie thought. She vaguely wondered how she would feel if she was in Ginny's shoes. She knew that she would be extremely upset.

'But would I be able to fix it?' she asked herself, but the depressing, truthful answer came almost instantly: no. How was she going to explaing to Ginny that, though if may seem like she was the cause of Ginny's heartbreak, that Katie was really helping her, in the long run? Very unlikely that she'll ever believe that...

And as Katie's thoughts slowly became more and more depressing, she finally fell into a very restless, nightmare-filled sleep...

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**So? watcha think? wow, this was a really fun chapter to write. i think that this one was my favotie so far. plus, it was super duper long. :) actually, its my longest one yet, (according to the word count, anyway). i really enjoyed it, though. but did you? why don't you go send me a review and let me know??? ;)**


	20. The Plan

**Wow, the big 2-0! ok, so how many people besides me are about to die? DEATHLY HALLOWS!!! **

**...just go ahead and read the chapter. :)**

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Katie was standing in the middle of the Gryffindor common room. She was all alone, save for one person. 

This person was standing about two feet away from Katie, facing her. This person's face was streaked with tears, tears that were pouring out of her eyes, down her cheeks, and onto her front, soaking her robes. This person's facial expression was one of complete shock, one of someone who could not believe her eyes, someone who just couldn't have seen what she thought she had just seen. This person was opening and closing her mouth, but words seemed to escape her, because no sound was coming out of her mouth. This person's name was Ginny Weasley.

Katie was just standing there, facing Ginny, completely lost for words, and the memory of what had just happened fresh in her mind:

Katie had been standing by the portrait hole, when Harry walked into the common room. He spotted Katie immediately, walked over to her, put his arms around her waist, and started kissing her. In some faraway distance, Katie heard the portrait hole open again, but she didn't care who it was that had just walked into the common room. That is, she didn't care just yet, because she didn't know who it was- Ginny.

Ginny didn't even see Harry and Katie at first, she just walked right by them. Then, when she was nearly at the other side of the room, she did a double take, turning her head so fast that she cricked her neck. Her eyes fell upon Harry and Katie, wrapped so tightly around eachother, kissing like there was no tomorrow, and her jaw dropped.

Ginny's brain seemed to have jammed. Katie Vreeland, kissing Harry Potter? _Katie??_ Ginny shook her head very fast, closed her eyes, then opened them again; but Harry and Katie were still there, completely unaware of anything that was going on, completely unaware that Ginny was standing there, a mixture of shock, jealousy, and anger bubbling up inside her. In just three long strides, Ginny had crossed the common room, and she arrived at Harry and Katie just as they were pulling apart. Harry went over to Ron, who had beckoned him over seconds before, and followed him out of the common room, leaving Katie, who believed herself to be alone, with Ginny.

Katie turned around, her eyes fell upon Ginny, and her eyes widened. Katie didn't even get a chance to open her mouth to say anything before Ginny rounded on her.

"_How could you?!"_

"Ginny, wait a minute, please." Katie said, her voice a bit shaky.

But, apparently, Ginny had no intentions whatsoever of 'waiting a minute'. She started shouting at Katie, tears starting to form in her eyes. Katie tried to talk over Ginny, but the result was that she had to start shouting, too. She could barely hear anything that was coming out of Ginny's mouth, but between her own words, Katie could hear things like, "Betrayal of trust" and "Supposed to be my friend" coming from the wide hole that was Ginny's mouth. Within minutes, their argument reached a volume that was something equal to that of an elephant stampede.

They had only been at eachother's throats for about three or four minutes, when Ginny took a few steps closer to Katie, raised her arms, and placed them on Katie's shoulders. Before Katie even realized what was going on, Ginny began to shake Katie violently, while she continued to shout and scream at Katie. But Ginny was no longer shouting everything that was on her mind at Katie, now, she was saying one, single word at the top of her voice, "Katie!!"

Katie tried to pull herself away from Ginny, who was still shaking her by the shoulders, but Ginny's grip was too strong. "Katie!"

Ginny shook her again. Someone was yelling her name "Katie!" over and over again, from some faraway distance...it was becoming louder and louder each time...

"KATIE!"

Katie woke with a start, her eyes wide open and her heart pumping fiercely. She looked up, to find Hermione standing over her.

Hermione took her hands off of Katie's shoulders. "Finally." She said, taking a few steps back so that Katie could get out of bed; but Katie didn't move. "You have got to be the soundest sleeper that I've ever met in my life." Hermione told her, a smile creeping onto her face. "But you'd better hurry up and get dressed. You'll be lucky to have breakfast at this time. We have to be in Potions in fifteen minutes."

Katie groaned, and, reluctantly, got out of bed.

"I'll be down in the common room with Harry and Ron, we're waiting for you." Hermione said before leaving the dormitory.

After the door had closed, Katie looked around the girl's dormitory, and found herself quite alone. But this was how she wanted it right now- she needed time to think.

As she got dressed, Katie let her mind rove over the dream- no, more like nightmare- that she had just had.

This whole thing, with Harry and Ginny and all, was causing way too much trouble for Katie's liking. Now added to the guilty feeling that she had to deal with, Katie felt worried, too. Was Ginny's reaction going to be that dramatic when she found out? 'I sure hope not...'

'I really have to pay more attention to what I'm doing.' Katie thought, after realizing that she had been putting her left shoe on her right foot. About a minute later, when she had finally gotten both shoes on and was all dressed, Katie decended the stairs into the common room. She spotted Harry, Ron, and Hermione almost at once, and walked over to them.

"About time, I'm starved." Ron said, smiling at Katie.

Katie looked at Harry, only to find that he had already been looking at her. They smiled at eachother.

Harry was just about to reach for Katie's hand, when Seamus came up behind them and put one arm around Harry's neck, and the other around Katie's. "Look who it is! The Chosen One, and The Chosen One's girlfriend!" Seamus said, laughing.

Harry pushed Seamus's arm off him. "Hello to you too, Seamus."

"Did you guys see yet?" Seamus asked, pointing to the notice board pinned to the wall by the door. "First Hogsmeade trip, during the first weekend in October. Only about three weeks. Not bad, eh?"

"Yeah." Said Ron, as his stomach emited a loud grumble. "Listen, can we just get down to the Great Hall already?" he asked.

As the five of them made their way down to the Great Hall together, Harry asked Katie, "So, you sleep alright?"

Katie looked at him and smiled suspiciously. "Is that supposed to be a joke?"

Harry let out a bark of laughter. "Not really. No, seriously, did you sleep well last night? Only Hermione told me and Ron that it took her about three million years to get you to wake up." he said, laughing.

Katie joined in with his laughter. "No, I slept alright. I guess I'm just a really sound sleeper." Of course, Katie knew that this was perfectly untrue- last night was probably one of her worst sleeps ever. But she wasn't about to tell Harry about all this trouble with Ginny that she was having. 'I really have got to stop lying so much, though.' She thought to herself as she walked through the doors to the Great Hall. 'I've never lied this much before I came to Hogwarts...'

After eating breakfast, Katie went with Harry, Ron, and Hermione to Potions. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly for Katie, with the exception of after dinner, when Ginny had said "Hi" to Katie in the Gryffindor common room, and Katie felt her stomach clench quite painfully. Thankfully, though, Ginny didn't hang around to chat.

The next day dawned bright, sunshiny and warm, and after classes were over for the day, Katie spent her evening watching Harry at Quidditch practice. Harry entertained her by doing different dives and maneuvers, but had to stop when he got whacked in the head with a bludger because his eyes were on Katie instead of the other players on the field.

After the practice was over, Harry and Katie walked back up to the castle, hand in hand, and Katie was describing which of Harry's moves she had liked best.

"I really liked that one where you rolled over on the broom." She told him.

"Oh, the Sloth Grip Roll? Yeah, that one's one of my favorites." Harry said, smiling.

"It looked scary, though. I thought you were going to fall off."

"Nah, I wouldn't fall." Harry said. Then he added, "Say, d'you think you would you wanna try it?"

Katie looked at him, shocked. "Me?" She laughed. "_You_ might be able to do it without falling off the broom, but I know for a fact that _I'd_ fall off. That's got to be at least fourty feet in the air." She said.

"It's ok, I'll just stand underneath you with a big parachute."

The two of them laughed and joked all the way back to the Gryffindor common room, where, after they had finished thier homework, Harry kissed her goodnight. That night Katie slept better than she had the previous night- much better.

* * *

Over the course of the next three weeks, Katie's guilt and worry about Ginny slowly ebbed away, leaving her with a happy, relaxed feeling. Not that she didn't still feel a little stab of giult in the pit of her stomach every time she saw Ginny, looking so happy, or every time she kissed Harry. But the guilt was becoming more of a little side note in the back of her mind, than a constant bothering, which was what it had been when she had first started going out with Harry.

Katie was really starting to enjoy going to school at Hogwarts; she loved going to her classes and learning to do magic, she loved dining in the Great Hall every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, she loved being friends with Ron and Hermione, and she loved being Harry's girlfriend.

She had finally memorized her schedule (she had had to rely on Harry, Ron and Hermione to know which class they were supposed to go to next). It had taken her a little while longer than it would have normally, because the schedule changed every day, which made it a lot harder to memorize.

Not that being a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was a fly-by. Katie still had mounds of homework that she had to keep up with, which was graciously aided along by Hermione; Katie honestly didn't know what she would do if she didn't have Hermione there to help her. Harry was a helping hand too- whenever she needed help with some scrap of information from years one through five that she hadn't learned, he was there for her. Even Ron wa able to help her; even though he may not be the smartest student in the sixth year, he knew alot more about magic than Katie did.

She no longer took notice of the instances when Malfoy would stare her down, which in themselves were slowly becoming less and less frequent, as if whatever Malfoy had been thinking about, he had finally started to make up his mind.

But after almost a full month of being at Hogwarts, Katie had been so absorbed in everything that was going on that she had completely forgotten about the Half-Blood Prince book in the muggle world. It finally re-entered her mind the night before the first Hogsmeade trip of the year.

Katie and Harry were sharing an armchair by the fire, and Harry pulled his copy of 'Advanced Potion Making' out of his bag to show Katie something, when she realized with a jolt that she had completely forgotten about it for almost a month.

"Oh my god, Harry," she said, staring at the book in his hand. "I've just remembered. Tomorrow, during the Hogsmeade trip, Malfoy's going to give Katie Bell that cursed necklace for Dumbledore."

Harry just looked at her for a minute, then realization dawned on his face. "Wait, is that the thing that you said that we were going to try and stop, back in the beginning of the year?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Ok, hang on a minute. If we're going to try and stop it from happening, don't you think you should tell me what exactly it is that we're trying to stop?" he said, smiling.

"Oh, right." Katie said, smiling also. "Ok, so Malfoy is a Death Eater, right? And Voldemort told him that his job is to kill Dumbledore. So tomorrow, Malfoy is going to put the Imperius curse on Madame Rosemerta, tell her to wait in the bathroom of the Three Broomsticks, and give the necklace, which is in a brown box, to the first Hogwarts student that goes into the bathroom." Katie told him. "Now, the way that it happens in the muggle book,," she continued. "is that Madame Rosmerta is going to give the package with the necklace in it to Katie Bell, and she's going to go back up to the castle with it. You, Ron, and Hermione are going to be walking behind her and her friend. They're going to start arguing over it, it's going to tear open, and it's going to brush against Katie Bell's hand. She won't die, though," Katie said hurriedly, seeing a worried look starting to form on Harry's face, "because she's going to brush it with the least amount of skin possible. But it will be enough to put her in St. Mungo's for a pretty long time."

"Wow." Harry said, silently admiring the fact that Katie had such an amazing memory. "So we should probably stop it before Katie Bell even gets hold of the necklace, that way, she won't be in any danger." Harry said.

"Yeah, I know, but how?" Katie asked him.

They sat quietly for a minute, trying to think how they were going to be able to pull this off. After about half a mintue, Harry said, "This'll be easy. All _you_ have to do is go into the bathroom and get the package from Madame Rosemerta before Katie Bell gets it." Harry said. He seemed delighted with his own brilliance.

"But what would we do with it after we have it?" Katie asked him.

Harry's face fell, then lit up again almost immediately. "We'll just bring it to Dumbledore. He'll know what to do with it."

Katie's face broke into a grin. "This _is_ going to be easy."

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**So, how many people thought that Katie's dream in the beginning of the chapter was real? lol, i hope it was alot of you... ****:) review review review!!**


	21. Hogsmeade

**alrighty then, so who saw Order of the Phoenix? i thought it was really good, but i'm not realy going to talk about it right now, not when ur supposed to be reading my story lol. so go ahead and read:)**

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Katie woke up on October 6th with an exited feeling swirling around in her stomach- today was Saturday, the day of the Hogsmeade trip. The average sixth year student would normally be excited for today for one reason: it was the first Hogsmeade trip of the year. Katie, on the other hand, was excited about this for her own reasons: one, this would not only be the first trip of the year for her, but the first trip of her life. She had only ever read about Hogsmeade in the muggle books, and it sounded wonderful just reading about it. But today, she would be visiting it for real; she would be able to see all the shops and stores and everything in person, instead of seeing it in the mental picture she had made of it from the books. 

But Katie wasn't excited about going to Hogsmeade just for that, no, she knew that today, she and Harry would be stopping what they had come to call the "Katie Bell Incident". She was going to be (partly) responsible for saving Katie Bell from the danger that would otherwise await her in the bathroom of The Three Broomsticks. And the best part about it was that, even though the job was meant to be deadly, niether Harry nor Katie were going to be in any danger at all.

So when Katie greeted Harry in the Gryffindor common room after dressing, it was with a smile (and a kiss). The two of them went down to the Great Hall together for breakfast, then entered the queue that had already formed of students waiting for Filch to allow their entrance into Hogsmeade.

"You're going to love Hogsmeade, Katie, it's great." Harry told her as they waited behind a group of seventh year Ravenclaws. "But it usually doesn't take this long to get in...I wonder what's going on...?" Harry said, stading on tiptoe to try and see over the heads of the other students to the front of the queue.

Katie grabbed his elbow and pulled him back down. "Filch is just checking everybody with a Secrecy Sensor." she told him, her hand still resting on the crook of his arm.

"How d'you know th- oh, the book, right." Harry said, smiling. Then, he leaned his face closer to hers. "Listen, how long do we have until Katie Bell goes into the Three Broomsticks?" He asked her in a low voice, so the Ravenclaws in front of them wouldn't hear.

"Oh, don't worry about that, we have a while. She doesn't get the package until later in the evening." Katie said, taking his lead and lowering her voice also.

"Oh, ok, that's good then. We'll have plenty of time." Harry said. "You're gonna love Hogsmeade, Katie, it's really great." Harry beamed at her.

"It sounds amazing, from what I've read in the books."

"Oh, it is, you won't be dissapointed. There's so much to do. We can go to The Three Broomsticks to get some butterbeer, that stuff is great. Well, no, actually," Harry thought for a minute. "No, we should probably go in there last. Yeah. But there's loads of other places we can go in the meantime, like Zonko's Joke Sho- ouch!" Harry was inturrupted by a long rod being prodded into his side by Filch.

"Move along, there, move along." He said rudely, shunting Harry aside so he could check the next person with the Secrecy Sensor.

When Harry and Katie had both been thoroughly checked by Filch, they proceded down the winding path to Hogsmeade vilage, accompanied by all of the other Hogwarts students, third year and above, who were all happily walking down the road, absorbed in their own conversations, and looking forward to a nice day in Hogsmeade.

As the cold, bitter October wind whipped about Katie's face, sending her hair flying in all directions, she pulled her cloak a little tighter around her neck, to prevent herself from getting chilled to the bones before she even got to the village. Only when she saw Harry pulling a pair of gloves over his hands did she remember that she had put a pair of her own in the pocket of her robes. She put them on, feeling the woderfuly warm feeling start to return to her fingers.

"If we start heading down to The Three Broomsticks around four o'clock, we'll have about four and a half hours to do everything else." Harry said, consulting his watch. "So, where d'you want to go first?"

"Er, why don't you choose? The muggle books don't really give too much description about the entire village, so I really don't know much about it." Katie said.

"Ok," Harry said, unperturbed. "Let's see...We can visit the Shrieking Shack first..."

And with that, the two of them set off together, hand in hand, walking through the windy, brightly lit Hogsmeade village. They visited all of the different shops and sites, talking and laughing all the way. But four and a half hours later, they walked into The Three Broomsticks, finding it comfortably warm, and with a very cheerful atmosphere. Harry bought butterbeers for himself and Katie, and then they sat down at one of the little circular tables.

"Go ahead, try it." Harry encouraged Katie, handing her one of the glasses full to the brim with a foamy, brownish-amber liquid that Katie knew was butterbeer, even though she had never had it. Katie took the glass into her hands, raised it to her lips, and tilted it back, letting some of the butterbeer flow out from the cup and into her mouth. She swallowed, and a peculiar, warming sensation filled her, starting in her throat and slowly speading through the rest of her body. She raised her eyes to Harry, who was looking at her with a inquistitory look on his face. "Well? D'you like it?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's delicious." Katie said, smiling at him. Then, the smile slid off her face as her eyes fell upon a blonde, haughty figure standing just a few feet behind Harry, talking to Madame Rosemerta at the bar.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, after seeing the smile that had been on her face replaced with a slightly troubled expression.

"Turn around." Katie told him quietly.

Harry looked at her slightly strangely, but did as she told him anyway. But as soon as he saw Malfoy talking to Madame Rosmerta, he immediately knew why she had suddenly looked so troubled.

He turned back around to face her, his eyebrows raised. But Katie only spared Harry a quick look before turning her attention back to Madame Rosmerta, who was nodding her head. Then, Madame Rosmerta turned her back on Malfoy, and, almost in a trance-like state, walked out from behind the counter and went through a door in next to the bar, which was unmistakibly the entrance to the bathroom.

Malfoy watched Madame Rosmerta all the way into the bathroom, and then, once he was sure that she was going to do exactly as he had said, turned round, facing the room at large.

His eyes swam over the many different heads in the room, and finally landed upon Katie, who was still watching him. Both their eyes met and instantly narrowed at the same time. Neither of them looked away, but kept their gazes focused and unblinking. But the reason for not taking thier eyes off eachother was different for each of them; Katie was vaguely wondering what he was looking at _her_ for, but Malfoy, on the other hand _wasn't_ wondering what Katie was looking at him for. Not that he didn't care about the reason that she was staring back at him, no, he cared, but he wasn't wondering, because he already knew.

Katie didn't take her eyes off Malfoy, even as he stood up straight- he had been leaning on the counter of the bar-, and started to walk over to the table at which she and Harry were seated, still not taking his own eyes off Katie.

"So, Potter, Vreeland, out for a little _date_?" Malfoy asked maliciously, coming to a halt right beside Harry and Katie's table.

"Go away, Malfoy." Harry said threateningly.

"What's wrong Potty? Have I touched a nerve?" Malfoy said, his mouth curving into his signature sneer.

"No, actually, you haven't." Harry said cooly. "It's more of the fact that you're standing there that's bothering me."

Katie laughed out loud at this, causing Malfoy, for the first time since he arrived at the table, to look at her.

"You know, Vreeland, I really don't much like your taste in guys." Malfoy said, taking a quick glance at Harry before returning his eyes to Katie. "I mean, _Potter_? You've got to be joking!?"

"What do you want Malfoy? Because if you're just here to make fun of me and Harry, you might as well leave." Katie told him.

"Well, I guess I'm staying then." Malfoy, said, taking the empty seat next to Katie and sitting in it. Katie looked at Harry, who looked back at her; she could see that he was just as confused and taken aback by Malfoy's sudden desire to join their table as she was.

"Seriously, Malfoy, go away." Harry said. Katie distinctly saw his right hand reach under the table, and she automatically knew that he was reaching for his wand.

"No need to start dueling, Potter." Malfoy said, unperturbed. He had obviously also spotted Harry's atempt to get his hand on his wand before Malfoy got his. "I just want to talk to Vreeland."

Harry just looked at him. "What d'you mean, 'you wanna talk to her'?"

"I mean I want to say words to her, and she says words back." Malfoy said in a mocking voice, as though explaining the term 'talking' to a two-year-old, and barely concealing a grin.

Harry gave him a look of pure loathing before saying, "So go ahead, she's right there. Or have you gone blind, and you didn't notice that she's sitting about two feet away from you? Or maybe you've forgotten how to speak English, and need a translator?" Harry said in a voice of mock concern.

"You prat, Potter, I wanted to talk to her by herself." Malfoy said, meanwhile taking Harry's earlier example and reaching for his own wand.

"Why d'you need to talk to her be herself? Why can't you say whatever it is in front of me?" Harry asked Malfoy, a note of accusation in his voice now.

"Because it's none of your buissiness, that's why." Malfoy retorted

"Well why do you think that I'm just going to let you walk off with my girlfiend?"

"I'm not going to 'walk off' with her, I just want to talk to her for god's sake." Malfoy said.

Katie who had been watching the argument from the beginning, unnoticed be either boys, could tell that Malfoy was starting to get angry. She didn't think a fight between Harry and Malfoy would fit in too well with what Harry and Katie were about to do, so she was readying herself for the moment when Harry and Malfoy both pulled thier wands out from under the table; Katie was prepared to stop the fight before it started, or at least she was going to try.

She momentarily took her eyes off Harry, who was saying something back to Malfoy now, and looked up at the bar. Madame Rosmerta still hadn't returned from the bathroom, which meant that she hadn't given Katie Bell the necklace yet- this was a good sign. Katie then decided to see if Katie Bell had even come into The Three Broomsticks yet, and after about three seconds of scanning the room with her eyes, Katie found her, sitting at a table with another girl, who she knew must be Katie Bell's friend, who was the one that was going to be fighting with Katie over the package with the necklace in it. Or at least, she _would_ be fighting over it with Katie Bell, if she and Harry weren't about to change everything around...

'If we're going to do this, we might as well do it now.' Katie thought. She knew that she had to get the necklace before Katie Bell got it, and right now seemed like the perfect time to do that.

Katie turned her attention back to Harry and Malfoy's continuing argument. "Erm, Harry, I think I'm going to go to the bathroom." She said pointedly to Harry, standing up.

Harry looked up at her. "Oh, right." He said, compression dawning on his face. "You know what, I think I'll go wait for you over there, so I can get away from him." Harry said, casting an angry look at Malfoy.

But Malfoy had stood up too, was now walking around the table, and came to a halt just in front of Katie, so that he was directly in front of her, blocking her way into the bathroom. "Why d'you have to go in there?" He asked her.

"Malfoy, I'm not going to stand around here answering your stupid questions. Now move out of my way." Katie said, attempting to walk around him, but Malfoy just blocked her again.

Malfoy hesitated for a moment, then said, very queitly, so only Katie could hear, "I can't let you go in there Vreeland."

Katie stared at him, her eyes narrowed. "And why not?" Not really bothering to keep her voice down as Malfoy had done.

Malfoy opened his mouth to give her an answer, but his words never escaped his mouth, for a giggly, girly voice behind Malfoy said, "Hello, Draco." Malfoy, in spite of himself, turned around, to see a skinny, curly haired sixth year Slytherin girl standing behind him. "Oh, hi Christina." He said, almost exsasperatedly; he obviously didn't want to be bothered with her right now, it definitly wasn't the best time. Malfoy turned back around to Katie and Harry, but only to find that they had both vanished. He whipped his head around, stared all around the room, especially the area by the bathroom, but the two of them were nowhere in sight. Malfoy cursed under his breath.

"What's wrong, Draco?" Cristina asked in a simpering voice.

"Wha- nothing, nothing's wrong." He said, but his eyes kept darting around the room, almost in a panic-like way.

"Well then, come on. Remeber this morning, you said you were going to bring me somewhere?" She said, taking hold of Malfoy's arm, and giggiling.

"Oh, yeah, right." He said distractedly, letting Christina lead him by the arm out of The Three Broomsticks; but he didn't seem to notice that he was being pulled from the room, that is, until, he turned around and walked smack into the door. But even after that, up until the very last second of his being in the room, his eyes were searching in vain for Harry and Katie.

But no matter how hard he looked, he wasn't going to be able to find them.

"You know, Harry, it's really lucky that you had your invisibility cloak on you." Katie said, standing next to Harry, both of them invisible to passerby.

"Yeah, really comes in handy, doesn't it?" He said smiling. "I reckon we can take it off now, though, Malfoy's gone."

After checking that no one was looking in their general direction, they took the cloak off, and Harry stowed it back inside his bag.

"Ok, lets go." Katie said, checking over her shoulder that Katie Bell was still sitting at her table; she was.

The two of them made their way over to the girls' bathroom with little dificulty, and stopped just outside the door.

"Alright Harry, this'll be quick and easy. I'll just go in there, get the package from Madame Rosmerta, and then come back out. Then we can just bring it up to the castle to Dumbledore. Ok?" Katie said.

"Ok, go ahead, I'll be waiting right here." Harry told her, turning around, so that his back was facing the bathroom; he was after all, a guy, and this was, after all, a girl's bathroom.

Katie turned round, so that she was facing the door, grasped the doorknob with her right hand, turned her wrist, and pulled. The door creaked very slightly as Katie pulled it open enough so that she could walk through the opening. In the split second that she stepped into the room, Katie heard the door swing shut behind her, saw the dazziling lights reflected on the floor and walls of the room, smelled a slightly perfumed scent, and then, in a blinding flash of white light, felt something hit her.

It was as though all of Katie's thoughts, cares, and worries had suddenly flown out the window. Her mind had suddenly gone mysteriously clear and blank. Far away, she could feel something slightly heavy being pushed into her hands, and she grasped it tightly, although not aware of doing so. Some little voice in her head was saying something to her, a voice that she neither knew nor recognized; but the fact that she didn't know the voice didn't bother her one bit, she didn't care, she knew only one thing about it: no matter what, she had to listen to this voice, she had to do what this voice was telling her to do.

_"Bring this package to Albus Dumbledore, right now. Don't let anyone stop you. Don't let anyone take it away from you..." _

Then, Katie heard another voice in her head, a voice she knew. It was her own voice: "Ok."

Then, without knowing what she was doing Katie turned back around, and opened the door again. Katie saw a boy waking towards her, a boy with jet black hair and glasses. But she didn't care; she didn't have time to stop and chat, she had to bring this package, and whatever was inside it, to Albus Dumbledore, the little voice had told her so.

"Wow, Katie, that was fast." Harry said, but Katie barely heard him; she had already started moving towards the door.

Harry, noticing nothing, took a few quickened steps to catch up with her. "Hey, slow down a bit, Katie, we're in no hurry." Harry said, smiling.

Still, Katie continued to walk on. She had heard Harry, but she didn't look at him; right now, she didn't know who he was, or why he was following her. She only knew one thing: she had to bring this to Dumbledore.

"So, are we going to go straight back up to the castle, or d'you wanna hang around here a bit more?" Harry asked her, still not realizing what was going on, but starting to get slightly hurt by the fact that Katie wasn't answering him, not even looking at him, not even acknowledging the fact that he was there.

"Erm, Katie?" Harry said, after Katie didn't answer his question after about ten seconds.

By this time, the two of them were at the exit to Hogsmeade. Katie was walking in a quick, brisk manner, with the air of someone who was late for something, and was trying with difficutly not to run to their destination. Harry, wondering why in the world she was walking so fast, and had still not realized that there was something wrong with her, was almost jogging to keep up with Katie's fast paces.

"Look, Katie, d'you mind slowing down a bit? There's really no need to be in such a hurry, you know." Harry told her, starting to breath a little heavier than he would like at the moment.

But Katie had no business slowing down, not when she was supposed to be bringing this little package to Dumbledore.

But by this time, Harry was starting to get a little annoyed. Katie hadn't said one word to him since she had walked out of the bathroom in The Three Broomsticks, and Harry didn't appreciate being ignored.

Harry started to sprint, but stopped after about only about two seconds. But he hadn't sprinted to keep up with Katie, he just wanted to get ahead of her. Harry stopped and stood directly in front of her, blocking her way up to the castle. When she approached him, and attempted to walk around him, he stopped her, catching her by the shoulders. Had Katie been in her right mind, she would have realized that the place that they were now standing, was just a few feet away from the place where Katie Bell would have stopped walking, and started to fight with her friend about the package. The two of them were standing where Katie Bell should have been standing if she had gotten to the package first.

"Katie will you please tell me why you're in such a hurry?" Harry asked her, looking straight into her eyes. Only then, when he saw how different and weird her eyes looked, did he realize that something was wrong with her.

"Katie, are you feeling ok?" He asked her, slightly nervously this time. But when she didn't answer him, but stared blankly into his face, he started to get really worried.

"Katie?" Harry, whose hands were still on her shoulders from when he had stopped her, shook her very slightly. "Katie, can you hear me?"

Still no reply. The only thing Katie did in response to this was to try and free herself from Harry's grip.

"Katie, would you answer me?" Harry said angrily. But he wasn't really angry with her, no, he was starting to panic.

Katie twisted herself, still trying to get away from Harry, her friutless ettempts becoming more and more violent.

Harry, having absolutley no idea what was going on, and starting to think that she might be having a seizure, let go of her. Katie stopped moving immediately. She looked at Harry for a split second, the walked around him, and started, once again, to head back up to the castle.

Harry looked as if he had just been slapped across the face: shocked and utterly bewildered as to why Katie was acting like this, Harry ran up to her, and grabbed her arm, to stop her from getting away from him.

"Give me that package." Harry said quietly. He was finally starting to put two and two together: Katie had only started acting funny the minute that she had gotten her hands on that little brown package that she was cluthing in her hands, so it only made sense that, if he took it away, she would return to normal. Or, at least, that was the only thing Harry could come up with right now, in his current state of panic and worry.

But Katie didn't give him the package. The voice had told her _'Don't let anyone take it from you...'. _She knew that she was to obey that voice at all costs. She tried to wrench her arm from Harry's grip, but he was holding her arm way too tightly.

"Katie, I said give me the package, now." Harry said, holding out his hand. But Katie made no move as if to give it to him, in fact, she moved it as far away from him as she could, without dropping it or throwing it.

"Look, Katie, I'll let go of you, I promise, just give me the package first." Harry said, as Katie started to try and kick Harry in an attempt to get away from him.

Harry grabbed her other arm. If Katie wasn't going to give him the package willingly, he was going to have to take it from her by force. The only problem was, that both of his hands were busy holding Katie's arms, so he was going to have to let go of Katie's left arm to take the package from her right.

Acting quickly, because he knew she was going to try and get away as soon as he let go of her arm, Harry released her left arm from his grip, and reached over to her right hand, and grabbed hold of the package. Now they each had one hand on the little brown package, but Katie had more of it, and Harry was holding alot less of it then she was. Katie's eyes grew wider; she knew she couldn't let him have it.

Harry's and Katie's eyes met for a second, a second that contained an entirety; both of them, holding the package with one hand, both of them breathing heavily, both of them wanted to take the package from the other. Then, in one motion, both Harry and Katie tugged on the package in unison, tearing it cleanly in two.

From Harry's and Katie's point of view, the next few moments happened as though someone had slowed down the clocks, and put the world in slow motion.

Harry and Katie both saw a blinding white-blue light suddenly burst forth through the tear in the package. They both pulled their hands away from it as a blue opal necklace fell from it, but Katie wasn't quick enough.

Her eyes grew wide with shock as she was thrown into the air. Harry watched in horror as her body rose up, up , up, and then, without warning suddenly hurtled back down to the ground, and landed in a heap in the ground, dark and unmoving.

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**well, now i no everyone's is going to hate me for this. i just ended on a big cliffy, but sorry, i don't think i'm gonna be able to update again until after the Deathly Hallows release. i mean, i'm going to be waaay to busy mourning to type the next chapter, and i'm sure all of the rest of you are going to be in mourning too, so i think you'll understand, right? i sure hope so. **

**of course, there is that slight slight chance that i may have hours of spare time over the next few days and meraciously type the next chapter, but don't get ur hopes up, k:) but please review anyway, okie doke? thanks very much!**


	22. The Cursed Necklace

******wooooooooaaaahhhh!!! so... Deathly Hallows! IT ROCKED! lol. wow, personally, i thought that that was the best book that J.K. Rowling ever wrote, i liked it best out of all seven of them (can i get an 'ear, 'ear? lmao!) but anyway i just have to say that i just decided that i'm not going to say anyting about the actual book or the plot or anything in this author's note, out of respect for the people out there that haven't read Deathly Hallows yet. (because i know for a fact that if somebody had told me what happens in the book before i'd read it, there would be a 99.9 percent chance that i would have killed them, lol) but, i would be very pleased if somebody sent me a PM about what they thought of the book. (i promise that i'll PM back, lol)**

**and also Deathly Hallows-related: um, wow i'm gonna have a tough time finishing this story, because now we all know what happens to all the characters and stuff. so, i've decided that i'm just going to finish out writing the story just like i was before Deathly Hallows came out: just pretend that you haven't read the seventh book just yet, and pretend like you don't know anything that happened after ****the end of Half-Blood Prince, ok? sounds good? alrighty then, on with the chapter:D**

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recap of last chapter: 

_Harry and Katie both saw a blinding white-blue light suddenly burst forth through the tear in the package. They both pulled their hands away from it as a blue opal necklace fell from it, but Katie wasn't quick enough._

_Her eyes grew wide with shock as she was thrown into the air. Harry watched in horror as her body rose up, up , up, and then, without warning suddenly hurtled back down to the ground, and landed in a heap in the ground, dark and unmoving._

"Oh my god." Harry said under his breath, staring, transfixed at the dark shaped sprawled on the ground that he knew was Katie's lifeless form.

"KATIE!" Harry shouted, his voice starting to come back to him, along with all of his other senses, after the momentary shock that had overcome his entire body. He sprinted over to her, laying on the ground, and he fell on the ground beside her, on his knees. He placed his hands on her shoulders and roughly rolled her over so that she was now lying on her back.

"Katie? Are you alright? Can you hear me?" Harry asked, his voice shaking slightly.

Katie groaned, and her eyes fluttered opened. "Yeah, I think so." She said uncertaintly, sitting up. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Oh god, I thought... I thought that you'd..." Harry pulled her into a hug. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, Harry, I'm fine. Thanks." She said, smiling into his anxious face, which was slowly becoming more and more relaxed as he realized that Katie really wasn't hurt. "But what happened? What are we doing here?" Katie asked, taking in her surroundings.

"Yeah, I was just about to ask you that same question." Harry said, trying to inject some sense into the situation: he was still extremely confused. "How come you were acting all funny?" Harry's face was full of concern. For all he could tell, he was missing something here: Katie had just been acting very strangely, and he wanted to know why very badly.

Katie was silent for a minute, thinking. Then she said, "Harry, what's been going on? I can't remember anything I've been doing since I walked into the bathroom." Katie's voice shook a little, and Harry could tell that she getting a little scared. Harry couldn't blame her: If he'd woken up to find himself lying in the snow and with no idea where he was, he would be quite disturbed.

"I dunno what's going on, Katie. You walked into the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks, and up until then, everything was going according to plan, but then, when you came back out, you were acting all...wierd." Harry thought back to when he had been standing in the pub, and Katie had just walked out of the girl's bathroom, holding the package. "You came out, but you didn't look at me or anything, I don't think you even knew I was there." Harry paused, frowning. "But, you had to have know I was there, you knew I was there before you went into the bathroom, and you were only in there for about two seconds."

Katie frowned too. She thought back to what had hapened once she entered the bathroom. She definitely remembered pushing the door open, but after that...her memory was just blank. "I know I went into the bathroom, I can remember that, but I can't remember coming back out..." Katie said slowly. "Harry, oh my god!" Katie said suddenly, remembering with a jolt what had happened to Katie Bell in the muggle book when she walked into the bathroom. "I know why I was acting funny! Harry, I was-"

"Imperiused!" Harry finished for her, smacking himself in the forehead with his palm. "You were Imperiused, weren't you? I saw your eyes, and I knew they looked funny, but I didn't make anything of it then." Harry paused while Kaite nodded her head, then he said, "Oh god, Katie, I'm so sorry, I should have realized you were under the Imperius Curse. I've seen people Imperiused loads of times, why didn't I recognize it?" Harry smacked himself in the head again.

Katie reached out and held on to his arm, to prevent Harry from hitting himself again. "Harry you don't have injure yourself over it, I'm fine." Katie said, smiling. Harry smiled back at her as she released his arm, but the smile was gone in an instant as his eyes fell upon the ripped brown paper and the glowing opal necklace laying in the snow. His eyes grew wider as it all came back to him: what he and Katie had been doing minutes before, what they had been fighting over, and what that necklace was containing...

"Katie," Harry began shakily, "D'you realize what just happened?" When Katie was silent, frowning slightly at him, he went on, "Katie, you...you almost died." Harry was audibly terrified of those words, and his fear was carried out throught his next sentences also. "Katie, that was a badly cursed necklace that you just touched. How come...why...why didn't anything happen to you?" Harry stared at her, his face full of concern.

Katie hesitated before answering. But when she did speak, her answer wasn't the one that belonged to the question Harry had just asked. "I didn't touch the necklace..." She said slowly.

Harry opened his mouth to speak, but whatever he was about to say was pushed aside as a new group of words found thier way into his mouth. "What's _he_ doing here?" Harry said, emphasizing the contempt that he put into the word _he_.

Katie looked at Harry, to find that his eyes were directed over her shoulder. Following his gaze, Katie saw, to her displeasure, that Harry was watching Draco Malfoy, strolling up the path. Apparently, he had gotten rid of Christina, for he was walking alone, hands in his pockets and a sneer on his face. But looking behind the sneer, Katie saw that Malfoy looked...troubled. But before Katie could marshal her thoughts, Harry stood up, pulling Katie up with him. "C'mon, Katie, lets get out of here before he gets over here."

Harry took his scarf off, wrapped it carefully around his hand and picked the necklace, which was still emitting that eerie blue light, up out of the snow. As Harry was doing this, Katie let her eyes drift to Malfoy, who was still moving in their direction. Katie watched as his eyes focused on the necklace that was still laying in the snow next to Harry; Malfoy didn't look surprised.

Now finished with his preparations for picking up the necklace, Harry bent down, extended his arm, and winced slightly as he picked it up, as if he had been expecting something to happen; nothing did.

And with that, the two of them hastily set off on the path together, trying to put as much space between themselves and Malfoy as possible. They succeded; they had only been walking for about five minutes, when Katie looked back around to find that Malfoy was nowhere in sight.

When Harry and Katie reached the castle doors, it was to find them unblocked, and what was more, Filch was nowhere in sight. They hurried up to the seventh floor to Dumbledore's office as fast as they could, for they didn't like the prospect of being caught by Filch, or any other teacher, for that matter, with an item in their possesion which was cursed, full of dark magic, and possibly illegal.

Being told to enter by Dumbledore after knocking on the wooden door a few minutes later, Harry and Katie stepped into his office, and began on what turned out to be a long, detailed account of what had happened the during previous hour in Hogsmeade.

When they had finished, Dumbledore merely peered at the pair of them from behind his half-moon spectacles, his face unreadable and blank of any emotion. But after a moments silence, he said, "Katie, may I ask you a question?"

Katie, not expecting a question of this kind to be directed towards her, hesitated slightly before answering. "Erm, yeah." She said slowly, silently wondering why he was asking permission, and whether she was going to be repremanded or not, for he was neither smiling nor looking too stern.

"Do you remember, in the beginning of the year, when Harry brought you along to his first lesson with me? And more importantly, do you remember what I had told you on that night?" Dumbledore asked her.

Katie stared at him. Did it really matter? Katie decided to answer him anyway. "Erm, you told me...that...erm..." Now that she thought back, Katie couldn't honestly remember what Dumbledore had discussed with her on that particular day. It had been so long ago, and so much had happened since then.

"You don't remember?" Dumbledore asked her. But he didn't seem to want an answer, for he didn't wait for one. "Then I suppose I'll have to refresh your memory. I told you, as I'm sure you will recall, that the events that are supposed to take place this year should not be tampered with. I told you that, just because you have knowledge of what is going to happen, doesn't mean that you are entitled to change it at your own personal will."

Katie's stomach plumetted. Now she remembered. Dumbledore _had_ told her all of this. And what was even more, Katie had completely disobeyed.

"I am sure that you also recall, upon myself telling you this, that you gave me your word that you would not attempt to change any of the events that should take place. You had given me your word that you would not change anything on purpose. And then, tonight, you came into my office to tell me that you did just that; you did not do as I asked, Katie." Dumbledore's face, which had been so calm and emotionless when Harry and Katie had entered the room, now held an expression of dissapointment. And this, Katie thought, seeing Dumbedore look so dissapointedly in her direction, and to hear the same dissapointment in his voice when he spoke, made Katie feel much worse than she would have done if Dumbledore had been angry. She might have even prefered him to shout, rather than hear the cold dissapointment in his voice.

Katie didn't know what to say. She just stared at her knees in silence, waiting for Dumbledore to say something else; she didn't have to wait long, however.

"Katie, if I had thought that any good would have come from you and Harry changing the events that were supposed to occur tonight, then I certaintly would have allowed you to do so, without any hesitation. However, I knew that no good would come from it, and I was right." Katie looked up, in spite of herself, at this point.

"Professor, what d'you mean, no good came from it? We stopped Katie Bell from almost dying. She would have been in St. Mungo's for the next few months if we hadn't done what we did!" Katie said indignantly. Then, realizing the tone that she had just taken with the headmaster, quickly added, "Sir."

"And you almost got yourself killed in the process, Katie." Dumbledore told her, passing her rudness off. "From what you and Harry have told me, you made a potentially fatal mistake tonight, Katie. You miscalculated. You thought that you would simply be able to walk into the bathroom, get the necklace, and be done with it. You forgot, did you not, that Madame Rosmerta was going to put the Imperius Curse on the first person that entered the bathroom? Your plan, therefore, was ruined from the very moment that you stepped foot in the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks."

"Well, it's been a while since I've read the book, Professor. The last time I read it was, well, a couple days before I came here, so, it's been a couple months now, and well, I couldn't remember _everything_, sir." Katie said lamely, trying desperately to give some kind of explaination for her huge mistake.

"Katie, I told you not to interfere for a reason." Dumbledore said, appartently half ignoring what Katie had just said. "I know you want to help, and I know that you think you will be saving people from danger, but, please, let this be the last time you will purposely change something during the course of this year. I have my own reasons for telling you not to interfere. The last time I told you this, you didn't listen. Please, Katie, for your own sake, listen now."

Harry and Katie both understood themselves to be dismissed. Having nothing left to say to Dumbledore, Katie stood up, with Harry right behind her, and the two of them left the brightly lit office together, leaving the glowing opal necklace laying apparently innocently on the desktop. It was only once they had walked halfway to the Gryfindor common room did they speak.

"You know, Katie, I think he's probably right." Harry said. "I mean, it's true, what he said. You could have died tonight." Harry looked at her gravely. Katie looked into his face and saw that he was just as scared and bothered by that fact as she was.

"I know," Katie said, her own face revealing her fear.

"I guess we should have thought the plan over more carefully. I mean, if you really think about it, it wasn't a very good plan at all. Lots of room for mistakes..."

'No,' thought Katie, 'it wasn't a very well thought out plan at all.' She should have remembered about Madame Rosmerta putting the Imperius Curse on the unlucky person that walked into the bathroom, but she hadn't, and her little mistake had nearly caused her death...

The two of them walked in silence the rest of the way back to the Gryffindor common room, each of them deeply immersed in their own thoughts: Harry was thinking that it had been a pure miracle that Katie hadn't just died, and Katie was thinking about what Dumbledore had just spoken to her about. She knew that he was telling her to stay out of the way for her own safety, but she didn't understand why. _She_ wasn't in any danger, not including the fact that Voldemort wanted her dead simply becasue she was the daughter of Lucius Malfoy. But she wasn't thinking about that now, because she couldn't help but worry about other things, such as the near-fatal incidents that were going to take place this year, unless, of course, she decided on disobeying a direct order from Dumbledore yet again, and tried and stop them from occuring. What if something went wrong, what if something changed between the book and now, and the result was that someone got hurt in the process?... But Katie decided to put it from her mind right now. There was no need to worry just yet, not when Malfoy's next attempt at murder wasn't going to happen until March first...

By this time, Harry and Katie had reached the portrait of the fat lady, and Harry had already said the password before Katie could pull herself from her thoughts.

Spotting Ron and Hermione sitting in their favorite chairs by the fire, Harry and Katie walked over to join them.

"Harry! Katie! Did you guys just get back from Hogsmeade? Because me and Ron have been back for almost an hour now." Hermione said to Harry and Katie as they occupied two empty chairs next to Ron and Hermione.

"No, we got back a little while ago, but we went to see Dumbledore." Harry told her, shaking snow from off his gloves and prising them off his frozen hands.

"Dumbledore? Why did you go to him?" Hermione asked them. Then, as the thought occured to her, she said cautiously, "You didn't get into trouble, did you?"

"What? No!" Harry said defensively. "We had to give him something." Harry got up for a minute to hang his cold and wet articles of clothing by the fire with those of other Gryffindors who recently returned from Hogsmeade. When he had sat back down with Ron, Hermione, and Katie, he said, "Remember back in the beginning of the year, when Katie told us about how in the muggle book, Katie Bell gets cursed with that necklace on her way back to the castle from Hogsmeade?"

Ron and Hermione were silent for a few seconds, then, as relization spread over both their faces, Hermione said, "Yes. Yes, you told us that Malfoy was aiming an attack on Dumbledore, that he was going to try and get a cursed necklace up to the castle, but Katie Bell got cursed instead, on her way back from-" Hermione paused, then exclaimed, "From Hogsmeade, during the first trip of the year! It was tonight, wasn't it? Did it happen already? Is that why you two were gone so long? Is that why you had to go to Dumbledore?" Hermione said quickly and rather breathlessly.

Katie smiled at her. "Yes, yes, yes, and yes." Katie said, laughing. "You're good, Hermione." Ron and Harry both joined in the laughter.

"So what did you do? Did Katie Bell get cursed? What happened?" Ron asked eagerly.

Harry and Katie smiled at eachother. Then, for the second time that night, they relived everything that had happened since the two of them had stepped foot in the Three Broomsticks. After about fifteen minutes, they finished telling Ron and Hermione all about meeting Malfoy in the Three Broomticks, about Katie being Imperiused and Harry not realizing it, about how they were fighting over the package, how it had torn open and Katie had flown into the air, and everything that Dumbledore had discussed with Katie. Then, eager to know more about Harry and Katie's misadventure in Hogsmeade, Ron and Hermione stayed up for another hour or so, dicussing with Harry and Katie everything that had happened that evening.

"Harry, I'm surprised that you didn't recognize the effects of the Imperius Curse." Hermione said, as if scolding Harry for not realizing that his girlfriend had been Imperiused. "You've seen people under the Imperius Curse loads of times, how did you not-"

"I dunno, Hermione," said Harry, who was starting to get a bit annoyed by her nagging. But that wasn't the only reason that he was starting to get a bit touchy with the fact that he hadn't realized that Katie was Imperiused. He had come to realized that, if he _had_ noticed she was under the Imperius Curse, that would have made sure that she wouldn't have any chance at touching the necklace. He understood that if she had died, it would have been his fault.

Of course, Katie took a completely different perspective on the situation: If she hadn't forgotten the fact that Madame Rosmerta would put the Imperius Curse on the first person to walk into the bathroom, in the first place, then they would have easily avoided the entire affair. But she _had_ forgotten, which put the blame entirely on herself. Katie knew, and any other person would easily agree with her, that if she _had_ died, the blame would definitely not fall upon Harry; although Harry thought differently.

"It's alright, Harry, I really don't blame you." Katie said, cutting across him. "I'm fine, I didn't get hurt, so no harm done, really." She finished with a smile.

Harry tried to smile back at her, but the image of her body flying through the air and landing so unceremoniously upon the hard ground kept winding its way into his mind. Hermione, not noticing that anything was slightly wrong with Harry, continued, "You know, Katie, if you think about it, it was kind of a miracle that you lived though that. I mean, that was a cursed necklace that you had, and it was full of dark magic. It was really, really lucky that niether you or Harry touched it." Hermione told them, looking at Katie.

"More lucky that she didn't touch it than lucky than I didn't." Harry said. "She had alot more of her hand on the package than I did. I was barely holding it. It was more of a miracle that she didn't touch it."

"Well, the only reason that _I _didn't touch the necklace was because I flew into the air." said Katie.

"How come?" Ron asked, cutting across Harry, who had opened his mouth to speak. "You never told us why that happened." Ron said.

"Well, I don't know." Katie said slowly. "I really have no idea what did it."

"You know, I think it was probably some sort of jinx, from the way Harry described it." Hermione told them thoughtfully . "Probably something like a Reductor Curse." Hermione sat in silence for a minute, thinking. Then she said, "Remember back in the beginning of the year, when Harry and Malfoy got into that fight?"

"Yeah, and Malfoy hit me with that spell and I went flying through the air and was completely humiliated in front of a whole group of Slytherins?" Harry said darkly. "Yeah, we remember that. Kind of hard to forget, to be honest." Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Katie all laughed.

"Well, yes, that." Hermione said finally. "Did it look anything like that?" She asked Harry, because he was the only one that had seen what had happened to Katie when the package ripped.

"Yeah, exactly like that." Harry said, thinking back. "I wonder what spell that was. Maybe Malfoy put it on the package before he gave it to Madame Rosmerta, so that just in case the package did rip open by accident, like tonight, before it got to Dumbledore, so that whoever opened it would be blasted out of harm's way."

"No," Katie contradicted him. "First of all Harry, Malfoy's a Death Eater, remember? And a Death Eater wouldn't be so concerned with the saftey of whoever was delivering the package." Katie said. "And second, we know that Maloy didn't put a curse like that on the package, because in the muggle book, Katie Bell didn't get blasted back like I did, she was able to touch the necklace, and she got cursed."

"Oh, yeah." Harry said, looking slightly dissapointed that his woderful theory had been proven completely wrong.

"So then, if the curse wasn't on the package, then there must have been somebody else near enough to you guys to hit Katie with the curse." Ron put in.

"You mean, somebody else was there with us, and they were they one that cursed Katie out of the way?" Harry asked.

"Must have been." Ron said. "And whoever it was, they saved Katie's life."

Katie looked slightly awed. "I wish I knew who it was, so I could that thank them."

"You didn't see anyone else there with you?" Hermione asked Harry and Katie. They both shook their heads 'no'.

"Too bad." Ron said.

"Hang on," Harry said. Ron, Hermione, and Katie looked at him. "We saw Malfoy, remember? When we were about to leave."

"Yeah, that's right, he was coming from Hogsmeade." Katie said.

"Yeah, but I highly doubt that Malfoy saved Katie's life." Harry said laughing.

"You never know." Said Ron. "He might have suddenly gotten the mad desire to become a saint." He said solemnly. "He might have just been walking down the path, hoping to do some act of kindness in the world, and then, poof! He walked right in on Katie, about to touch a cursed necklace that would surely cost her her life, so bam! He gently blasted her out of harm's way." Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Katie all burst out laughing.

* * *

**wow, so i finally finished _that_ chapter! phew! really sorry it took so long. i actually had written pretty much the whole chapter, ('cept for the ending), but then, the next thing i no, it was the day before Deathly Hallows came out, so i absolutley had to read that, lol. and then after that, (literally, about a day or two later), i went on vacation... and then, when i got back, i was sitting at the computer desk, thinking about the future of the story, and i got the most _brilliant_ idea _ever_!! Seriously, i just got this stroke of inspiration, and i wrote it all out, and then, what do you no, i got _another_ brialliant idea (lucky me, lol)!! so, once i had those, little things just kept coming to me, and now, i have an amazing story planned out! Really, it's great, lots of plot twists, and stuff, and i'll give anybody 50 bucks of they figure out wat's going to happen. lol. **

**so anyway, once i had those ideas, i had to re-write the whole beginning and middle of this chapter, and that took a while; i had to get everything just right. so now, the chapter's finally done, and now i can move on to the next chapter! woop woop! review plz? cheers!**


	23. The Flashback

**well, thanks to all my reviewers, i really appreciate all the support! well then, i guess i'll just let you go ahead and read the chapter now... **

**oh, yeah, and i don't own Harry Potter, as much as i wish i did. :(**

* * *

After getting a good night's sleep after the exciting events of Saturday night, Katie's brain was pushed to the limit as she, Ron, and Harry spent most of their Sunday evening finishing off the homework that was due the next day, and had been, until tonight, put off until the very last minute. Harry and Ron, who had this problem on a regular basis, were rather calmer than Katie was at the prospect of not having homework done that would have to be handed in in less than 24 hours. Also adding to the reasons for Harry and Ron not to be in a state of near panic, was the fact that they, unlike Katie, had already completed five years of magical education, while Katie was only on her first. 

True, at the start of term, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had spent their first weekend back- and a few weekends after that- giving Katie a short tutorial on almost everything she would have learned if she had started at Hogwarts in first year like everybody else, but that didn't give Katie everything she needed to know about the wizarding world. During those lessons in the beginnning of the year with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Katie had just been given the very basic information: basic spells, basic facts, and such. But, to Katie's disadvantage, being at Hogwarts school for five years before entering your sixth created a definite positive increase in your magical ability.

And this was just the reason why Katie was so much more worried about her homework than Harry and Ron were. She was always the last one to finish between the four of them, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were usually found giving Katie help if they had all finished and she was only half-way done. Katie would sometimes even be forced to do her homework in the library, or take books out of the library and bring them into the common room just to do one assignment. On these occasions, Harry would nearly always accompany her, feeling bad for her, and only leaving her alone with Hermione when he and Ron had Quidditch practice.

Not that Katie's magical ability was mediocre or inadequate; she was really doing a pretty good job at being a witch, accounting for the fact that she had only had about a month of magical education: if she had been a month into her first year right now instead of a month into her sixth, she would be doing exceptionally well. The only problem was the fact that she _was_ in her sixth year, not first, and she wasn't doing too well next to the other sixth year students.

A hard worker, Katie didn't let the frustration of being near the bottom of the class bother her, she intead turned it into a factor of motivation: whenever she recieved poor marks on an assignment, she would simply resolve to do better next time. But the problem with that was the fact that it wasn't that simple- it was, in fact, much harder than just saying 'I'll do better next time'. Sometimes, all of the hard work and the effort that she put into it would sort of get to her, and she would become extremely frustrated. And example of one of these times would be that very Sunday evening: Katie was sitting on the floor in the common room, open books laying upon the floor around her, sometimes after being thrown aside after proving their lack of usefull information, or else just laying there, awaiting their turn to be siphoned of facts that Katie would use in the essay she was writing. And it was this frustration that cause her to look up as cry out, to nobody in particular, "How am I supposed to know what the effects of grindylows are on underwater plants?!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all looked up from thier own homework at this sudden innteruption.

"That's the Herbology essay your doing, right?" Ron asked. When Katie nodded, he continued, "I'm just finishing that up now." He waved his essay in the air for Katie to see. "I'll let you have a look at it, hang on," Ron said as he continued to write on the piece of parchment.

"Ron," Hermione said, halting in what seemed to be an effort to fit as many words on her parchment as possible. "I don't think you should let Katie copy your homework like that."

Ron looked up for a second time. "Why not? You always used to let me and Harry copy your homework when we needed it." Ron said. Then, his eyes grew wider as a sudden thought occured to him. "You're not gonna let any of us copy anymore?"

Hermione sighed, looking exasperated. "No, I just don't think that it's a good idea to let Katie copy our homework for every assignment."

"What about me and Harry?" Ron asked cautiously.

Hermione frowned. "Well, obviously I'm not going to let you guys copy everything either. I only give Katie most of my homework becuse she's so far behind." Hermione told him. "No offense." She added, looking at Katie.

"None taken. I just wish I could do it a bit faster." Katie said with a sigh.

The next day, Monday, Gryffindor sixth years had Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins after their after-breakfast break. Walking down to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom four floors below the Gryffindor common room after sitting up there for half an hour, Katie felt alot better than she had the previous night, having managed to finish all of her homework, and what made her even more happy, was the fact that she had been able to finish all of her homework with minimal help from Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Turning a corner, the classroom and the students queued up in front of it became perfectly visible at the other end of the corridor where Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Katie currently were. Katie could visibly see the line of Slytherin students and, next to it, the Gryffindors. Just as Harry, Ron, Hermione and Katie joined on at the end of the Gryffindor queue, Draco Malfoy, followed by his usual group of Slythierins, stepped out of the Slytherin line towards the Gryffindor one. They made no move toward any of the newcomers, however; they waked over and stood beside Neville Longbottom.

Even though he and Katie had never been introduced, and Katie doubted whether Neville even knew who she was, Katie was able to identify Neville very easily, and without doubt: He had the same round, good-natured face that was so often described in the muggle books. He also had a slightly scared, intimidated look about him, as the group of Slytherins made their way towards him.

"Oi! Longbottom!" Malfoy called out, so that everyone in the visinity could hear him: People were stopping their conversations now, and looking at Neville and Malfoy, wondering what was about to happen.

"I heard that you just got out of the Hospital Wing this morning. What was it that you were in there for again? Oh yeah, a head cold." Malfoy was sneering, and Neville was looking aprehensive, apparently, just like everyone else, wondering what Malfoy was up to.

"Yeah, yeah, I was." Neville said, voice shaking the slightest bit.

"Did Madame Pomfrey fix you up? You look ok..."

Neville hesitated slightly. "Yeah, I guess, a bit better..."

"Would you like a sweet? A bit of a pick me up?" Malfoy asked, holding out a bag of candy, the sneer still visible on his pointed face.

Neville actually raised his eyebrows in surprise. Mostly to avoid the awkward silence that had fallen between them, Neville took one, as Malfoy's sneer became more pronounced.

Neville just stood there, with the orange-colored sweet being held in his hand, as Malfoy lowered his arms, which had been holding out the bag, to his sides. "Well, aren't you going to eat it?" Malfoy asked. Neville looked at him, then stared at the sweet. Apparently, he couldn't find anything visibly wrong with it, so he popped it into his mouth.

The effect was immediate: The moment the candy touched his tongue, Neville started vomiting uncontrollably onto the floor. The people standing nearest him back away, and the Slytherins who were standing farthest away moved in for a better view. The corridor was instantly filled with all kinds of noise: sounds of retching were clearly audible, but but larger amount of noise was due to the Slytherins laughter and jeering.

Katie stood there next to Harry, watching Neville vomiting in the middle of the crowd made up of laughing Slytherins and pittying Gryffindors who were too disgusted to help Neville, and an all-comsuming rage, a rage that she hadn't felt in a long, long time, errupted inside her. Stepping out from the crowd of onlookers, strode up to Malfoy and grabbed the bag out of his hand. To busy laughing to care, Malfoy just fell on the floor clutching his sides as Katie rummaged through the bag. Finnally, she found what she was searching for: a small, half of a sweet, colored purple, and quite evedently the other end of a Puking Pastille.

Stepping over the slowly-growing pool of sick, Katie stood beside Neville and shoved the purple sweet into his hand and said over all the noise, "Eat it."

Neville, probably because he didn't know what else to do, obeyed, and swallowed the candy in the time in between two periods of his projectile vomiting.

After assuring herself that Neville was done retching, Katie reached into her pocket and drew out her wand. Praying that it would work, she said, "_Evanesco,_", vanishing the pool of vomit on the floor. Just as she did this, the door to the classroom opened, and everyone fell deadly quiet.

"In." Snape said quietly, moving out of the way so as to allow the students room to enter the classroom.

Filing through the door after Parvarti Patil, Katie sat at a table with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who all smiled at her and gave her a thumbs-up. As Neville passed by her seat, he whispered, "Thanks."

Katie returned his smile as Snape walked to the front of the classroom and began lecturing. Students all around her began taking out quills and parchment, and Katie did the same, but her mind was elsewhere as Snape began talking about dementors...

Katie was laying on her back, her hands folded behind her head, and staring up at the dull, gray ceiling. It was bliss, laying here on her bed, alone, with no one to talk to, and no one to look at, or be looked at by; it felt absolutley wonderful. She closed her eyes for a moment, and slowly sank into sleep. She dreamt she was in the middle of a flower-covered field soaking in the sun, riding on a pink pony, the nameless and faceless parents she wished she had were laughing and waving at her from off to the side. But, unwillingly and suddenly, Katie was wrenched out of this beautiful dream and back into reality as she woke with a start. The cause of her sudden awakening, as she was able to identify with ease, was someone knocking on her bedroom door. As much as she didn't want to let whoever it was into her small sanctuary, Katie got up, crossed the small room, and pulled the door open.

A little girl, about five years old- Katie's age- was stading there, holding a small, neat pile of newly folded and laundered clothes. She was a bit small for her age, but then again, so was Katie, and when they stood facing each other, like now, they were within an inch of each other's heights. Her hair was bright red, and her eyes an even brighter blue. With a slight Irish accent, she said, "Miss Stephie told for me to bring these to you." She held out her small, skinny arms, and Katie took the clothes out of them.

The second the pile of clothes was out of her hands, the little girl raced away, down the hall and then down the staircase, as if it was completely against her wishes to be anywhere near Katie for more than a minute. Katie was much too used to ths kind of treatment from the other children in the orphanage to make much note of it; she simply walked over to the small wooden dresser beside the bed and deposited the clothes there, the sounds of the girl's footsteps thundering down the stairs ringing in her ears.

For the second time that day, Katie sat back down on her bed, her little feet dangling off the side, not yet long enough to reach the floor. She looked around the room absentmindedly. Having lived there practically all her life, Kaite had, of course, seen other bedrooms in the place, and had come to the conclusion that they were all the same- a bed and a dresser, both of which were colored blue for boys and pink for girls, white ceiling and walls, and a wooden floor, the space of which was mostly taken up by a large circular rug in the center of the room, again, pink or blue, depending on the gender of the occupant. The rooms weren't all that colorful, and, in Katie's opinion rather dull, even though she was completely used to it- more used to it, in fact she was more used to it than the other children were, the main reason for this being that she spent so much time in there: more time than the other children did.

Katie was roused for a second time, by someone knocking gently on her door. "Katie, you in there?" The door was pushed open from the other side, revealing a young, blonde girl, probably aged around twenty- Katie couldn't never really tell-, with kind, blue eyes, and wearing what looked like an apron of some sort, which Katie knew to be the uniform of all the girls who helped out around the orphanage: doing laundry, doing the cooking, cleaning- in short, caring for the little children who called the ophange 'home'.

"Katie, it's time for lunch, if you would like to come down." She said kindly, with the tone of someone speaking to a sick person.

Not because she had any desire to be downstairs with the other children, but only because she was hungry, Katie got up off her bed and exited her room. Walking down the hall, Katie passed by many rooms. All of the doors were open, and each room Katie looked into as she passed, was empty. Katie sighed- the more people there were in the lunchroom, the more depressed she would probably end up being.

Followed by the woman who had come to get her, Katie walked into the large, sunlit room that was used for mealtimes. There were many tables, and, just so, many children. They were all seated in the small, rickety wooden chairs, some waiting to eat, and some already stuffing their faces with the many sandwiches that had been laid out for them. Most of the tables were pretty full; Katie sought one that was empty, or as close to it as she could find.

It only took a minute, deciding which table to sit at. Katie finally chose one off to the side, against the wall, and only so far occupied by two little boys and a young girl. They all looked a little worse for the wear, and all of their clothes looked a little worn out- but this was something of a style at the orphanage: everybody's clothes looked like this. As Katie approached the table, they didn't seem to even take notice of her; they simply continued with thier talking and laughter. It was only when Katie drew back a chair to sit in did they look up, and then in unison, upon recognizing who it was that had just decided to join their table, stood up and moved their things over to the other end of the table, away from Katie.

Katie just plopped herself into the chair; she was really quite used to this treatment from the other children, even though she could admit that she didn't like it. Another helper walked over to her, with a dish packed with sandwiches in one hand, and a little bottle full of amber-brown colored liquid in the other. "Here you go, Katie." She said, holding out the dish, as Katie took two peanut butter sandwiches and placed them side by side on her own plate, while the other children at the table watched her like visitors to a zoo watching a caged animal, although Katie was unaware of their doing so. The helper removed the cap from the bottle she was holding and poured a small amount of the brown liquid into Katie's glass. And finally, taking from the pocket of her apron a tiny bottle and a spoon, measured out a portion of redish, syrupy liquid with the spoon and then poured that into a second glass for Katie, and placed it next to her apple juice. "Make sure you drink all of your medicine before you start eating, Katie. We don't want another accident like yesterday, do we?" The helper grimaced slightly as she walked to the other end of the table to the other children. She she gave them all apple juice just like she gave Katie, and then held out the plate of sandwiches for them to help themselves. Katie watched as the little girl reached out her hand to take a peanut butter sandwich, but before she could take it, the smaller of the two boys grabbed her arm.

"No, Sarah, you don't want one of those." He said, indicating the sandiwches. "Katie touched them. Now they're cantamimated." He looked over at Katie as wrinkled his nose at her.

"It's 'contaminated', Jimmy, and you can go ahead and take one, there's nothing wrong with them." Said the helper, and giving the plate a little shake.

"No, we'll wait for new sandwiches, Miss Stephie. We don't want _those_." The other boy and the girl nodded thier heads vigorously in agreement with the boy who had spoken.

The helper sighed, then said, "Well, if you insist. I suppose they could have a little bit of..." Miss Stephie peered at the sandwiches for a moment, then said, "Ah well. I'll come back here when I have some new sandwiches, alright?" She walked away to one of the other tables, and again the three children started to talk amongst themselves.

Katie sighed, picked up one of her sandwiches, and took a bite. Why did they have to be so mean to her? It was normal, wasn't it, to get sick? 'Not every day...' Katie told herself.

Too preoccupied to remember what Miss Stephie had said to her, Katie continued to eat her two sandwiches in silence, alone. Miss Stephie had come back and given the other children their sandwiches already, and Katie was about to start eating her second sandwich when it happened.

Picking the second peanut butter sandwich up off her plate, Katie felt the all to farmiliar sensation in her stomach. She had to get out of there- and fast: for one thing, she didn't want to do it right here in the middle of the lunch room, and another, she didn't want to give the other kids another reason to make fun of her.

She stood up, but already knew that it was too late. She clamped her jaw shut tight and covered her mouth with her hands. The three children who had been sitting at the other end of the table all looked up, and, immediately recognizing the symptoms, got up and took a few steps back away from the table, while one of the boys yelled, "MISS STEPHIE! KATIE'S GONNA DO IT AGAIN!!!"

All around the lunchroom, heads turned in the direction of the shout, a few seconds silence, then...

Katie, who had been sprinting to the door as fast as her skinny little legs would carry her, stopped and keeled over.

_BLEURGH!_

As a gray-brown puddle slowly formed on the floor, the room echoed one word: _EWWW!_ All around Katie, children were yelling this, pointing at Katie, and backing away hastily- most were just trying to get as far away from her as they could, but a few were backing off to the sides and trying to make a small pathway in the middle of the crowd to let Miss Stephie through, who was running towards Katie. When she got near her, she said exasperatedly, "Oh, Katie, you didn't drink your medicine, did you? I told you to drink it _before_ you ate, didn't I?..." She picked Katie up in her arms and carried her away, somehow managing to evade stepping in the pool of sick and avoid Katie from getting more of it on her at the same time. As she carried Katie down the hall and then left into the small room that sometimes served as a sort of hospital, Katie could hear the other children still yelling 'ewwww!' and thought she heard some other helpers in their attempt to quiet them down. And the next thing she knew, there was nothing but blackness...

When Katie awoke, she opened her eyes and found that someone had carried her up the stairs and put her in her bed. It was a bit hard to tell, but Katie knew that it was nighttime by the way the curtains were closed and darker on the other side than they were in the daytime. Ordinarily, the orphanage would be quiet at this time, but Katie could hear the girls in the room next to hers whispering to eachother.

Katie sat up, and as she did so, heard footsteps outside her door. She laid back down.

"Oh, good, Katie, you've finally woken up." Miss Stephie was hard to fool when it came to pretending you were asleep. "Here, have some medicine." She said, handing Katie a cup full of the same red syrup-like liquid she had given her at lunch, although Katie had neglected to drink it then...

"Miss Kelly and Miss Dianne cleaned the lunchroom all up, made sure there were no germs or anyting left over in there at all. Although they had a teensy bit of difficulty getting Bobby and Timmy to sit at your table at dinnertime, but they cooperated in the end." Miss Stephie sighed as she smoothed out the bedsheets on Katie's bed. "Its a rather lot more diffucult getting the children to do anything today. What with your little incident, and those two people coming tomorrow, well, I'm just surprised that I'm not as stressed as I usually am, when it comes to these people wishing to adopt..." But Katie heard no more of this; it simply wasn't interesting to her- most of what the nurses and helpers said to themselves and eachother was deemed 'uninteresting' in Katie's mind, therefore, unworthy of her listening. Katie just laid back in her bed and let Miss Stephie chatter on about this and that as she did a bit of cleaning around the room and, finally, turned out the lights and left the room, closing the door behind her.

The next morning, as Katie walked downstairs to breakfast, she watched out of the corner of her eye as other children moved swiftly away from her as she aproached, and stopped talking as they noticed that she was there. But, again, she was used to this- it happened every time she had an 'accident'- in other words, practically every day.

Today, she sat at her own table, all by herself. But this was how she prefered it- this way, she wouldn't have to be subjected to the stares and wrinkled noses of the other children as they ate their clean, unsickly breakfast.

The room was much noisier than normal, but Katie knew why. Not that she cared much; she knew that she would never be picked, not when she was put up next to these nice, healthy children.

After eating, she headed out into the hallway, probably to go upstairs in her room for a while. Or maybe she'd go outside... She looked out the nearest window- very cloudy, no visible wind, no sun in sight- she decided she'd go to her room.

Heading for the stairs, she distinctly heard the ringing of the doorbell, always immediatly followed by the sound of the door being opened. Sure enough, Katie heard the front door creak open seconds later, and the sounds of adult conversation. She skipped up the stairs, humming a little. Nobody had wrinkled their nose at her all day so far, and this made her feel happy. Opening the door to her bedroom, her eyes immidiatly fell upon a little raggity doll sitting on her dresser. She loved this doll, it was her best friend. Picking it up, she felt its soft cotton-like material under her fingers and rubbed it against her cheek.

Wishing she had someone to play with, Katie decided to go ask the first girl she saw to play with her; she knew that whoever it was would probably say 'no', but Katie decided that she would ask anyway- maybe today would be her lucky day. She walked through her door, and into the hallway. Her eyes immediatley fell upon Stacy, a blonde, tall girl that lived in the room right next to Katie's.

Katie walked over to her and held up her doll. "Wanna play?" She asked Stacy. Stacy raised her eyebrows and said, "Katie, don't you know anything? Another two people are coming today, another mommy and daddy, and their gonna take one of us home with them! I gotta go brush my hair..." And with that, she pranced away. "Besides," She added, turning around to face Katie when she got to her own bedroom door. "I wouldn't play with you anyway. You throw up too much." She said simply, and walked into her room.

Katie sighed; she had expected that answer. "Oh well, Dolly, we can just play together, you and me." Katie walked into her own bedroom to play with her doll.

Meawhile, the two adults that had rung the doorbell that Katie had heard were now seated in the orphanage office, a small litttle room, full of filing cabinets: each child in the orphanage had their own little folder, containing information on them. Miss Dianne, who was the head of the orphanage, and who, as such, managed all of the adoptions, was sitting facing the two people, behind a desk.

"So, you're wishing to adopt, are you?" She asked in a crisp, clear voice.

"Yes, we wanted a little girl."

"Names?" Dianne asked, a pen poised on the tip of a piece of paper, ready to write them down.

"Matthew and Elizabeth Sennot." The man said, as Dianne wrote it down on the top line that said 'name(s)'.

"Adress?" Dianne asked them; they answered, and she wrote it down. And so on, until the entire sheet was filled out with Matthew and Elizabeth Sennot's information. Then, with Dianne leading the way, they three of them made their way upstairs, so Elizabeth and Matthew could take a look at all the children.

And up in her room, Katie continued to play with her little dolly, unaware that the two people that were looking for a child to adopt were just a floor below her...

"Would you like some more tea, Dolly?" Katie asked the doll. She was seated on the floor, her back to the wall, facing the door, with the little doll in the yellow dress sitting opposite. Or, at least, she was supposed to be sitting. She was really lying on her back on the floor, but Katie had her imagination.

She had just picked up the invisible teapot to pour her doll some tea, when the door opened. Katie looked up, to see a woman standing in the doorway, holding on to the doorknob. She had fair, brown hair, dark, kind eyes, and rosy cheeks. She was tall, and neither fat nor skinny- somwhere in between. As she smiled at Katie, her eyes seemed to reflect the smile, and they shined at sparkled at Katie.

Katie thought she was beautiful, and when she spoke, her voice was soft and gentle, "Oh, honey, look at this one, isn't she adorable?" She asked her husband.

The man leaned in, to get a better look at Katie. She saw that he had similar eyes to his wife: kind, and dark brown. His hair was brown also, though a bit of a darker shade than his wife's. He was rather broad, and muscular. As Katie looked up at the pair of them, standing in the doorway and looking back at her, she had a sudden mental image of herself standing in between them, thier daughter.

"What's your name, sweetie?" The man asked Katie, taking a step into the room; his wife stepped in behind him.

"That's Katie Vreeland, Mr. and Mrs. Sennot. But she has a...a bit of a...problem." Dianne leaned in towards the couple and whispered, "She gets sick rather alot, we think it must be some kind of a disease or someting. But we haven't been able to bring the poor thing to a doctor, we haven't the money here at the orphanage." She said rather sadly.

"Oh, how sad." The woman said pittifully, looking down at Katie. "She looks alright now, though, doesn't she?"

"Oh, well, yes, but, you see, its usually at mealtimes that she does it. And its been getting worse. Happens almost every day, sometimes more than once a day. We've been rather worried about her. She's started getting a bit paler, too, lately. But, as I already mentioned, we haven't been able to call a doctor." Dianne looked sadly at Katie.

"Oh, honey, why don't we take her home. Then we'll be able to fix her up, bring her to a doctor, let her get nice and healthy. She shouldn't have to suffer like this..." The woman said to her husband.

The man bent down so his face was closer to Katie's and put his hands on his knees. "How would you like to have a mommy and daddy?" He asked her, smiling.

Katie looked up into his face, her eyes wide. "I would like that very much alot." Katie told him.

He stood up and faced Dianne, saying, "How sweet. Yes, I think we'll adopt her." He looked at his wife, and she nodded.

"Well, then, Katie, you'll have to come downstairs with us." Dianne said.

Katie stood up, picked her doll up off the floor, and followed the three adults out of the room and down the two flights of stairs. Through the first window she passed by, Katie saw that the sun had made a very small attempt to peek out from behind the clouds. And on her way down the stairs, it seemed to get a bit brighter outside withevery passing window after that.

When they got to the office, they all sat back down in the chairs they had been sitting in earlier, with the exception of Katie, who was sitting on a smaller wooden chair against the wall. It was there that Miss Dianne took Katie's folder out of the filing cabinet and gave it to Matthew and Elizabeth to take a look at. And after they were finished looking, Dianne told them all about how Katie had come to be in the orphanage in the first place: how the two men in the funny clothing had come one night, and just shoved Katie into her hands the moment she opened the door, saying nothing but her name. At the time, it had been pouring out, and thundering and lightening, so it was rather hard to hear what they were saying over the noise of the storm; Dianne heard the baby's first name clearly, but the surname, she was unable to make out, due to the roll of thunder that had issued from the clouds as the man had said the name. Dianne had thought that it had sounded something like "Madfoi at the time, but she hadn't really been able to tell. She and the other nurses had then christened her with 'Katie Vreeland', and the name had stuck since.

After the papers had all been signed and examined, Mr. and Mrs. Sennot got up to leave. They shook hands with Miss Dianne, and, once she had shaken both Matthew's and Elizabeth's hands, Dianne went over to Katie and pulled her into a tight hug. "Oh, Katie honey, we're all going to miss having you here with us." As she let go, she added, "I suppose the other nurses would like to say goodbye to you, too." She left the room for a moment to fetch the other helpers, and within seconds, Katie was surrounded by a bunch of women, all saying thier goodbyes, and telling her how much the would miss her. But Katie could see it in their eyes that their smiles were false: They were all probably glad to be rid of her- no more would they have to clean up after her messes whenever she got sick... A few children were also starting to appear in the doorway, wondering what all the commotion was about, and what was going on.

A minute or two later, when every person in the room had finally bidded Katie goodbye, she looked bewilderedly up at Mr. and Mrs. Sennot, and then back at all the nurses and helpers that worked at the orphanage. "Umm, am I going somewhere?" She asked the general multitude.

A few of the helpers laughed softly, and Miss Stephie, who had become the most farmiliar face to Katie because she was usually the one who cleaned up after most of Katie's "messes", said, "Katie, you're going to have a real mommy and daddy now. You're going to go and live with them now." She smiled at Katie, on whose face had suddenly appeared an incredulous grin.

"For really? I have a mommy and daddy now?" She asked.

Miss Stephie smiled. "Yes, Katie. You'll have real parents and a real home and everything!" Then, turning to Mr. and Mrs. Sennot, she said, "All of us here at St. Helen's Orphanage have really come to love Katie, and she has found a special place in all of our hearts. Please, take good care of her." Katie thought her voice had changed with she had said this, she sounded a bit like she had pre-recorded these words. Katie was too young to regognize it then, but when she looked back on the moment when she was older, she had recognized the tiniest hint of sarcasm, and the fact that they were so very relieved to see the back of her.

And with that said, Mr. and Mrs. Sennot thanked all the women in the room, Katie waved them all goodbye one last time, and then she was walking out the front door of the orphanage, in between her very own new parents, and into the eye-wateringly bright sunlight, which had appeared moments ago, out of the cloudy fog.

Katie was lying on her back, with her hands folded underneath her head- this was a favorite position of her's- just as she had done only about one day ago, on her bed in the orphanage, only this time, she was resting on clean, soft-as-clouds sheets, more comfortable than she'd ever been in her life, and waiting for her new parents to come in. They had told her to wait here, until they came to tuck her in for the night.

She couldn't believe it: She finally had a _real mommy and daddy_. Words couldn't express her joy. After months- years- of dreaming about it over and over again, it was finally coming true. But the thing that she had found the most intriguing was the fact that they had picked _her. _Not Stacy, who lived in the room next to Katie, with her sleek and shiny blonde hair, or Tommy, the boy who lived next to Katie on the other side, with his uncanny ability to charm everyone he met- no, they had picked her: little Katie Vreeland, the one that all the other children were afraid to go near because they thought that if they went too near her, they would catch her 'disease', the one that nobody had ever wanted to play with, the one that vomited all the time, even though she had no control over it...

Katie was pulled from her thoughts as a knock came on her door, and a soft, kind voice said, "Katie, are you ready yet?"

"Yes, I'm ready!" Katie called. Elizabeth walked into the room, followed by her husband. They both came in and sat on the edges of the bed; they both smiled at her.

"Do you like it here, Kaite?" Matthew asked her. Katie nodded enthusiastically, "Oh, yes, I like it here very much. Your house is very beautiful."

"But it's your house too, Katie!" Elizabeth told her.

"It _is_?" Katie asked, her eyes wide and round as pearls.

"Oh, yes." Matthew said. "You live here now, so it's your house as well as ours." He smiled at her.

"_Really_? Wow..." She said whispered softly.

"Really. You're going to live here forever and ever." said Mr. Sennot.

Katie's mouth actually dropped open. "Forever?"

"Yes, forever."

Katie bit her lip.

"What's wrong? You do want to live here forever, don't you?" Mrs. Sennot asked her.

"Oh, yes, I want to live here!" Katie said. "I just...what if I...what if I throw up?" She asked in a small voice.

"Well, we'lll just clean it all up, won't we? Me and your mother." Mr. Sennot said, looking at his wife.

"But, what if I throw up alot? Because I usually do...I don't think you'll like me anymore. Nobody else does..." Katie said, a small tear beginning to form in the corner of her eye.

"Oh, Katie, don't say that." Mrs. Sennot threw her arms around Katie and pulled her into a hug. Katie had nevr been hugged before... Well, she'd been hugged, but not like this. Not by someone who really truely care about her, like a _mother_... "Of course we'll still like you! I'll tell you what." Mrs. Sennot let go of Katie and looked her in the face. "We're going to bring you to a doctor, a real one, and he'll fix you, he'll make you all better, so that you won't throw up anymore. Does that sound good to you?"

And so they did: two days later, Mr. and Mrs. Sennot brought Katie to a pediatrician, and a about only a week later, she stopped throwing up every day. Just like that. Her new parents sent her to school, where she was in a kindergarten class, with little boys and girls her age- it was just like being back at the orphanage. Only here, the other kids actually wanted to play with her, she actually sat at a table with them to eat snack, she actually had friends. Her life had been completely turned inside out: She had parents, she had a beautiful home, and she had friends, friends who liked her, played with her when she asked them, who didn't run away or wrinkle their noses in disgust when they saw her. It was a great feeling, to be included in games of tag and ring-around-the-rosy, and to feel so healthy, to not throw up every day- in short, Katie was now living her life as a normal little girl should: and she was absolutely loving it. And all of this- her new life, her new happiness, her new friends- were all thanks to her parents.

She was so very grateful to have them there for her, so very grateful that they had taken her away from that orphanage- which, by the way, she didn't miss in the slightest. After all, after living just a week in her new life, she wondered how she possibly could have stood living in the orphanage all that time: it seemed absolutley horrible now, but just a week ago, it had been all she had had for a home. She loved her parents like she had never loved anyone before- sure, there had been the nurses at the orphanage, who had taken care of her when she was sick, but other than that, they didn't love her: the only reason that they had cared much about her at all was because they were getting paid to care for her, and that was all. But her parents, on the other hand:, Katie could tell, young as she was, that they loved her. They always took such good care of her, always went to any lengths to ensure her happiness, always cared for her in ways that she had never been cared for in the orphanage. And this, Katie thought, was the best thing in the world...

"Vreeland!"

Katie snapped to attention. She wasn't anymore the little five-year-old girl living in her new-found happiness and bliss, no she was the sixteen-year-old girl who, apparently, was being reprimanded for something or other by Snape.

"Yes, Sir?" Katie asked him politely. He had always seemed so scary and forbidding in the books, and he was ten times worse in person.

"For the third time, I asked you whether or not your have your homework to hand in." He said through gritted teeth.

Katie felt a little poke in her shoulder: Harry had nudged her. He was trying to hand her a piece of parchment, which Katie recognized at the homework that she had completed only last night. She took it from him, and then handed it to Snape. "Here you go, Sir."

Snape snatched it from her hand so fast and hard that she got a paper cut, which Harry repaired with a little wave of his wand under the desk when Snape wasn't looking.

"Thanks, Harry." Katie whispered, as Snape headed back up to the front of the room, to put the stack of parchment on his desk for marking. Snape assigned the class their next homework assignment, and after the sound of scratching quills writing down the assignment had died down, there was silence for a few seconds, then, the sound of the bell echoing across the castle and its grounds, followed by the noise of bustiling students as they gathered their things and headed for their next classes: For Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Katie, this meant Herbology.

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**wow, what a long chapter! sorry it took so long to update, but, you know, long chapter, long time to write. i hope you guys liked it, after the amount of work i put into it. lol. i no i did, i think this was one of my favorite chapters to write, but also one of the most annoying, cuz i had to keep going back and make sure everything was just right. but, ah well, it was fun all the same... so anyway, plz go review, (those of you how weren't going to), and those of you that were, thank you so much, i love ya:D**


	24. Herbology

**wow, so how long has it been since i updated? waaaay too long. i'm really sry about that u guys, i promise i'll try to update alot faster next chapter, ok?. :/**

**umm, thanks to all my reviewers and readers, if i didn't have u guys, well, there wouldn't really be any point of writing the story, would there?. :)**

**and, unfortunately, i don't own harry potter. if i did, though, then i would make them hurry up with the sixth and seventh movies, so we don't have to wait so long to finally see them. i mean, seriously, they better hurry up. dan's gonna be in his twenties by the time they make the seventh one. lol anyway, on to the chapter**

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As Harry, Ron, Hermione and Katie walked across the vegetable patches to the greenhouses, Harry gave Ron, Hermione, and Katie all of the information that Dubledore had conveyed to him the previous night, during Harry's lesson with him, in which Dumbledore and Harry had traveled together into the pensieve, to witness the 11-year-old Voldemort being told that he was a wizard. Ron and Hermione listened with curiosity, but Katie wasn't paying very much attention- she knew all of this, after all, from reading the muggle books, so her mind was elsewhere as Harry got to the part about Dumbledore setting Riddle's wardrobe on fire. 

The flashback that had resurfaced it's way into her mind was taking up alot of her interest at the moment. She hadn't thought about all of that in nearly eleven years. But now that she _did_ think about it, she realized how lucky she had been on that day when her foster parents had first set eyes on her, and now, thinking back to the way she had been treated at the orphanage, Katie appreciated her parents even more than she had before- which was rather alot.

"Wow, scary thought, the boy You-Know-Who," said Ron quietly, rousing Katie out of her memories, as the four of them entered greenhouse three and took their places at one of the gnarled snargaluff stumps that formed this term's project, pulling on their protective gloves as they did so. Seconds later, just as the bell signaling the start of class was ringing, Professor Sprout came up behind them and said, "Only three at most to a stump, please."

It ended up being Harry, Ron, Hermione working at one stump, and Katie working alone- Harry and Katie spent a good five miutes discussing the groupings, Harry insisting that he would work with Katie, so she didn't have to work alone. In the end, Professor Sprout came over and assigned Harry, Ron, and Hermione together, with Katie working right beside them- this way, the four of them could continue their conversation, even though they were working at different stumps. They were at the end of the table, with closest person to them being Neville, so they didn't have a very good chance of bieng overheard. This time, Katie joined in the conversation also, and they four of them talked about You-Know-Who, at least, until Professor Sprout came over and told them to get started.

"Quite enough chat over here!" She said briskly, bustiling over and looking stern. "You're lagging behind, everybody else has started, and Neville's already go this first pod." The four of them looked around; sure enough, there sat Neville, standing next to Katie on her other side, with a bloody lip and several nasty scratches along the side of his face, but clutching an unpeasently pulsating green object about the size of a grapefruit.

"Okay, professor, we're starting now!" Said Ron, adding quietly, when she had turned away, "Should've used Muffliato, Harry."

"No we shouldn't!" Hermione said, firing up as usual at the mention of one of the Prince's spells. After that, though, the four of them got to work.

Katie stared her stump for a couple seconds, wondering just what she was supposed to be doing. She looked around her. Right beside her, Harry was busy wrestling with three vines, trying to tie them together into a knot, while Ron beat at another one that had tangled itself in Hermione's hair. Katie turned back to her own stump. It just sat there, looking helpless and innocent, while all around her, everyone else's stumps were alive and thrashing. Out of mere whim, and because she couldn't think of anything else to do, Katie stretched out her forefinger and gave the little plant a sharp poke.

Or, rather, she tried to poke it- before her hand was able to make contact with the green object, it suddenly sprang to life, as if it knew that there was someone there that it could attack. Long, prickily, bramblelike vines flew out of the top and whipped through the air. Katie saw, out of the corner of her eye, Hermione stick her arm inside her own plant, but the next second, all of Katie's attention was focused on the large, deep cut across her cheek; one of the vines had taken a swing at her face while she hadn't been giving it her full and undevided attention, and it was now readying itself for another strike.

Picking up a pair of secateurs off the table, Katie beat the vine away, as it swung at her for the second time, but as she did so, recieved a small blow to the forehead: her avioding a near hit from one of the vines didn't stop the others from continuing to have a go at her- they were relentless.

After a few more seconds of battling with the vines, Katie saw through her goggles a small hole beginning to show through the jungle of deadly tentaclelike branches. Deciding that it was the only way to succeed at this project, Katie plunged her arm into this hole, in order to retrieve the pod that Professor Sprout had told them was in there. With her free hand, she attempted to prise away the brambles and vines that were fastening themselves around her arm- the one that was desperately clutching the grapefruit-sized pod. But, hard as she tried, the vines wouldn't open back up: the hole that she had plunged her arm into seconds before had now closed tight, and was refusing to open again. Katie's whole arm, elbow down, was now stuck in the middle of all the vines, a few of which were now tightening painfully around her arm, while others continued to beat and scratch at that same arm- apparently, the stump was fully intent upon not letting Katie get the pod. It had now abandoned its attempts to hit any part of Katie it could reach, and was now focusing all of its efforts into the painful laceration of Katie's arm.

Now starting to lose a bit of the feeling in her fingers due to the fact that the vines were wrapped so tightly arond her arm, Katie seized her pair of secateurs with her free hand, and, doing the only thing she could think of, started beating down upon the stump with the intention of freeing her arm. Apparently realizing that it was under the attack again, the stump stopped clawing at Katie's one arm, and returned to trying to strangle and peirce Katie all over with it's dangerous vines.

With the vines occupied with trying to throttle its attacker, the hole actually opened up- but only about half an inch. But Katie, realizing that this would probably be the best chance that she would get to free her arm, tugged and tugged, until her arm broke free of the vines, which were swinging and swaying ominously in every direction. As soon as her arm was free, the stump suddenly froze and became as still as it was at the beginning of class, looking like an innocently dead lump of wood.

Katie stopped for a minute to catch her breath and examine her arm. It was slightly discolored, most likely due to lack of blood flow, although it was still managing to bleed freely in several places. There were many immensely deep cuts up and down the lengths of both her arms, and a much expanded number of smaller scratches and scrapes. The cut on her cheek was still oozing: a small trickle of blood was now seeping down her neckline and onto her robes. She also noticed that the hand she had gotten caught inside the stump was now bare- she had apparently lost her protective glove when she yanked her arm out of the tangle of vines.

Looking up, Katie was able to see that mostly everyone in the room had already gotten their pods out of the stumps and were now trying to break them open, filling the room with sounds of smashing and pounding. Beside her, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were among the many who had succeeded in retreiving their pods, and Katie could see Harry pounding on the stump with a trowel as Ron and Hermione argued about somethig, but what, Katie had no time to wonder- she was rather far behind, and needed to catch up. She had just turned her attention back to her own stump, when someone asked her, "Did you at least get the pod out, after all that?"

Katie looked around. Neville was standing there, apparently finished with his work early, and was holding a paper towel to his bloody lip. Katie sighed. "No, I didn't."

Neville smiled at her. Thinking that he was making fun of her, Katie turned back to her stump, a little hurt. She looked hopelessly at it, wondering how she was possibly going to get the pod out, when Neville asked, "Need some help?" Katie turned to look at him again. He smiled again, and Katie decided that he hadn't been making fun of her after all. Thinking that she certainly could do with a little extra help, Katie said, "Sure, why not? If you're not busy with anything else...".

So, with help this time, Katie sank her arm once again into the depths of the vines, with Neville holding the hole open. Katie was now able to retrieve the pod- and her glove- with much more ease, and recieving a much reduced number of cuts than she had when she had tried to attack the stump on her own.

"Wow, that was easy..." Katie said, taking off her goggles. Neville laughed.

"Ok, so now I have to open it, then take the tubers from the inside and put them in a jar. After that I'll be done?" She asked Neville. He nodded. "Here, use this." He said, handing her a trowel. "They're easier to open if you puncture them with something sharp."

Katie took the trowel out of Neville's hand. "Thanks for the help, by the way." She said to him. "I don't reckon I'd have been able to get that out on my own." She added, indicating the pod.

Neville beamed. "It was the least I could do. You did help me out with, you know, before Defense Against the Dark Arts..." Neville looked down at his shoes, aparently immensely embarassed about the situation he had been in earlier that day. "I never did get to thank you properly."

"Oh, you're welcome." Katie said. "It was nothing..." Katie was in fact a little embarassed herself- but for a different reason than Neville. Of course, she had wanted to help him just for the sake of helping him, but, to be honest with herself, Katie didn't think that she actually would have gotten out in the middle on the crowd and done what she had if it hadn't been for the fact that she knew exactly how bad it felt to be laughed at for throwing up.

"I'., Neville, by the way, Neville Longbottom." Neville said.

"I'm Katie, Katie Vreeland." The two of them shook eachother's hands...

Later that day, Katie sat in one of the cozy little couches in front of the fire, working on the homework that she had recieved in that day's classes: An essay each for Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts, and a labled drawing of a Snargaluff stump and a pod for Herbology. She had already been sitting there for an hour, having already finished her drawing and half of her potions essay. Of course, the process had, as always, been completed with a bit of help from Hermione, who had left the common room seconds before, having finshed all of her own homework and saying something about needing a good night's sleep.

It was about seven-thirry in the evening, which meant that Harry and Ron were about to come back from Quidditch practice any minute now. Just as this thought occured to Katie, the portrait hole opened and in stepped Harry and Ron, sopping wet and shouldering their broomsticks. Ron, looking a little worse-for-wear, walked straight past Katie and up into the boy's dormitories without saying a word.

Harry, on the other hand, deposited his broomstick on the floor beside the couch Katie was seated on, and then sat down next to her, pulling his bag over so that he could also get a start on his homework.

"How was Quidditch practice?" Katie asked him, dipping her quill into her inkpot.

"Lousy." Harry sighed. "Well, not completely anyway. It was going pretty good for everybody except-" Harry stopped and glanced over his shoulder. "-Except for Ron. He can play perfectly well when he's on form, it's just his problem with nerves that's holding him back. And once he makes one mistake, it just keeps snowballing from there. Like today: He only missed about half a dozen goals the whole practice, but somehow he managed to punch Demelza in the mouth when she tried to score a goal." Harry sighed again, and while doing so, pulled his Potoins book out of his bag in order to get started on his essay.

"Where's Hermione?" Harry asked, after sitting with his quill in his hand for almost a fulll minute with nothing written on his parchment.

"She went upstairs already." Katie answered him. "But you can take a look at my essay, she helped me with it." She said, extracting her newly-finished Potions essay from her own bag and handing it to Harry. "And you shouldn't worry about the Quidditch game on Saturday so much, you'll do fine."

Harry paused in his act of taking the essay from Katie. "Are you just saying that, or do you know from the book that we win the game?"

Katie smiled and hesitated with her answer. "Like I said, you'll do fine." She said simply, bending over her homework in order to hide the wide grin on her face. Harry smiled to. He opened his mouth to say something, but was then distracted, because at that moment, the portrait hole opened and in stormed Ginny, looking cross. Very similarly to Ron, she walked right past both Harry and Katie without saying a word and proceeded straight up to her dormitory.

"What's wrong with her?" Katie asked, trying to keep her voice casual, while a sudden thought buzzed its way around in her mind: Was Ginny upset because she had somehow found out about Katie's relationship with Harry?

"She had a row with Ron when we were coming back from Quiddtich practice." Harry said. The weight that had been pressing down on Katie's chest lifted: Ginny still didn't know.

Katie looked up, interested. "What did they row about?" She asked.

"Oh, well, me and Ron were walking back from Quiddtich, and he was already worked up because of how he did during practice, and then we walked in on Ginny and Dean. They were snogging in the middle of this corridor, and when Ron saw what was going on, he got pretty angry. They got into this whole big argument, and then Ginny said something about Hermione kissing Krum, and that really set Ron off." Harry finished. After taking in what Harry had just said, Katie remembered reading this part in the muggle book. It was during this night, in the book, Harry had finally realized his feelings for Ginny after walking in on Dean kissing her. 'But this time around, Harry's going out with me, so he wouldn't have felt that way towards Ginny when he saw her snogging Dean', Katie thought. 'Or would he?'. Katie shook herself. Of course he wouldn't.

And yet, if that was true, then that meant that Katie's plan was working: She had decided during the Quidditch tryouts, had she not, that she wouldn't let Harry and Ginny go out with eachother- because if they did, then they would just have to break up at the end of the year, just like they did in the muggle book, which would break both of their hearts. So Katie was taking Ginny's place, to save her from all of that. And if Harry had just seen Ginny kissing someone besides him, and he was okay with it, then that meant that all was going acording to plan...

During the silence in which Katie had been thinking about all of this, Harry had been working on his essay. But after a few seconds, he said, "Remember back in the beginning of term, when we agreed that we would get Ron and Hermione together?"

Katie thought for a minute. "Oh yeah! Oh my gosh, I completely forgot about that." She was about to continue, but Harry said, "Well, if I remember correctly, we were going to do it in Hogsmeade."

"Yeah, we- oh, no..." Katie said. She had just remembered about the announcement that had been made that morning by Dumbledore- he had cancelled all further trips to Hogsmeade this year, after what had happened during the last trip, with Katie and the cursed necklace. Katie remembered the trips being cancelled in the muggle book, too, but for a different reason: Katie Bell had been cursed that time, and badly, so the Hogsmeade trips had been eliminated, for the other students' safetey.

So if all of the Hogsmeade trips had been cancelled for the rest of the year, then that meant that Harry and Katie wouldn't be able to get Ron and Hermione together there.

"Well, we'll just have to do it some place else, then." Katie improvised.

"Yeah. It would have been really nice in Hogmeade, though." Harry sighed. "Well, then, I guess we can do it...here in the common room?"

"Sure." Katie said. "That was the easy part, though. Now how are we actually going to get them together?"

"Well, for starters, Ron's gonna have to be in a better mood." Harry said. "Why don't we wait until after the Quidditch match on Saturday, so that Ron won't be so wound up. He's a bit touchy at the moment." Harry said, a small smile playing around his mouth.

"Fair enough. So Saturday, after the match, the four of us can meet up here,-" Katie began.

"Hang on..." Harry interrupted.

"What?"

"Didn't you tell us that Ron goes out with Lavender Brown this year?" Harry asked her, frowning.

"Yeah, but that doesn't happen until-oh, shoot..."

"What? When does it happen?"

"This Saturday." Katie looked at Harry. "It's going to complicate things a bit if Ron's going out with Lavender."

Harry thought for a minute, then said, "When do they get together? Ron and Lavender, I mean."

"Right after the Quiddtich match is over, up here, in the common room." Katie answered him. "And that's exactly when we were going to have Ron and Hermione get together."

"Well, then, we'll just have to make sure that Lavender isn't up here when we do it." Harry said.

"And how exactly are we going to do that?" Katie asked.

Harry thought for a minute, then said, "How about right after the match is over, you find Lavender and tell her that Professor Slughorn wants to talk to her in his office. That way, she'll be all the way down in the dungeons, out of the way, and we'll be up here on the seventh floor with Ron and Hermione."

"Good idea. But once we're all up here, then how are we going to actually get them together?" Katie asked. They fell silent for a few minutes, each of them thinking about some way in which they could get Ron and Hermione together...

* * *

**Once again, I apologise for the long long long amount of time that it took me to write this chapter. plz forgive me?. :) its just that i had a teensy bit of writer's block halfway through this chapter, and it took a while for me to get back on track. and i also started school a few days ago, and between that and the start of the fall sports season, i eraly haven't had much time. anyways, i hope u all review, and i hope u all liked the chapter, and i promise that it won't take forever for me to put up the next chapter. cheers!!**


	25. Gloves and Mysteries

**So i guess i have a bit of explaining to do, huh? see, here's the thing: when i started this story, i was obsessed (and when i say obsessed, i mean _obsessed_) with Harry Potter. but a couple weeks after i updated the 24th chapter, i realized that i really didn't like it anymore. / oh well. but since i wasn't really interested in Harry Potter anymore, i just stopped the story, cuz i just had so much to do, and i was so busy, and well, idk i just wasn't that enthusiastic about it anymore. so i just stopped writing for about a year. (don't kill me)**

**so yeah i was reading a new chapter of my friend's story before and then i decided to go to my story (this one) and jsut read it for the heck of it. ****so i read it, the whole thing, all 24 chapters (no, not in one day lol, i do have a life ya no). and by the end of the day that i finished it, i had decided that i kinda missed doing the story, so i've decided to come back and start writing again.**

**i mean, i had alot planned for this story, and, lets face it, its really pretty fun to write an actual story and have other people read it and stuff ya no? but, like i said before, i'm not hardcore obsessed anymore, so its not like i'll be updating every other day. just when i have some free time or something, u no?oh yeah, and if ur all mad at me for not updating for so long so ur not gonna read the story now or something like that, and i guess i can understand that, lol. oh well.**

**so, here's the 25th chapter u've been waiting for (if anybody's even reading this, lol) and sry. :D**

**-Jess**

**oh, and if anybody _is _reading this, it would probly be a good idea to go back and re-read some of the other chapters (or at least skim a few of the previous ones) and stuff so ur not lost. (just a suggestion, because i had to do that before i started writing again). and sry this author's note is so long. lol.**

**oh yeah, and just some things to keep in mind while ur reading: 1) this chapter is taking place sometime in Novermber-ish. 2) Harry's adn Katie's secret plan from the previous chapter to get Ronand Hermione together right after the Quidditch match is over. 3) remember all that wierd stuff that happend with malfoy a few chapters ago (like when he kept staring at her and stuff like that) just keep that in mind. 4) Malfoy and Katie are twin brother and sister, even though they usually don't really acnowledge it. 5) Katie was originally from the muggle world, but started her sixth year late and has read the Harry Potter books in the muggle world so she knows everything (well, mostly everything) that is going to happen in the future of this year at Hogwarts. 6) After the Quiddtich game that is taking place in this chapter, harry and Katie are going to take Ron and Hermione upstairs to the Gryffindor common room to get them to go out (finaly lol). But in the muggle book at this exact time (after this Quiddtich match) in the common room, Ron and Lavender would start snogging (lol, sry funny word) and then start going out. But harry adn Katie are purposely changing that. OK got all that stuff? lol ok go ahead and read now, and sry this autor's note is so long. :D **

* * *

"Ok, so here's the plan for Saturday: The Quidditch match ends, then you, me, Ron, and Hermione start heading up here to the party or whatever. Then you see Lavender Brown and go over to her. You tell her that Slughorn wants to see her in his office. Then she'll be out of the way, so me and you will be able to get Ron and Hermione together." Harry was reviewing the newly-formed plan of how they were going to get Ron and Hermione together this coming Saturday, after the Quidditch match. He and Katie were sitting in front of the Common Room fire, the sounds of the few other students chatting and the crackling of the fire easing their minds.

"Sounds good. But what exactly are we going to do once the four of us are up here? What are we going to do that will actually get them together?" Katie asked, poining out the only flaw in the plan.

Harry was silent for a moment, then replied" We'll improvise. It'll make it more fun." He said with a wide grin.

Katie was about to add something else when Hermione took the empty chair on the other side of Harry. Knowing full well that they couldn't discuss their plans in front of her, Katie quickly changed the subject.

"So how's the team doing Harry?" Katie asked, trying to hide a smile: Just as Hermione had sat down, she and Harry had shared a look; they had been talking about Hermione and Ron's future relationship seconds before, and Hemione had no idea. "You think Gryffindor will beat Slytherin on Saturday?"

"As long as Ron's on form, we should do just fine." Harry's eyes showed the worry that was behind his smile: As of the practice earlier that day, Ron was definitly not on form. 'But then again,' thought Harry, 'Katie just told me a couple minutes ago that we'll do fine. I shouldn't be worrying'.

As Katie went back to her Potions essay, Hermione began correcting Harry's. They sat in silence for about twenty minutes, until Katie finished and decided that she should get to bed. Saying goodnight to Hermione and giving Harry a kiss, she left the common room and went up to the dormitory, thinking about how fun it would be to be getting Ron and Hermione together; in the muggle world, she had been a huge Ron-Hermione shipper, and to actually be (partly) responsible for finaly getting them together...

* * *

Saturday morning dawned bright and warm, and without a cloud in the sky: a good omen. Katie got up and dressed in unison with Hermione, while thoughts whizzed through her head (99.9 percent of which involved Harry) and then the two of them went down the stairs and met up with Ron and Harry, both of which were wearing the Gryffindor Quiddtich uniforms.

"Hey Harry," Katie said, as Harry approached her and gave her a kiss on the cheek and grabbed hold of her hand.

Taking notice of Ron's pale visage, Hermione asked, "You ok Ron?"

Ron, who had been staring at the floor, looked up at the sound of his name. "Look, can we just get down to the Great Hall already?"

With Hermione leading the way, the four of them proceded on thier way downstairs to the Great Hall, where hundreds of students were making their way in through the giant wooden doors, anticipating their first meal of the day. Harry and Katie walked a little behind Ron and Hermione, and quietly enough so that they wouldn't be able to hear her, Katie asked, "So are you ready for today?"

Harry looked at her and smiled. "Well, the skies are clear and the weather couldn't be more perfect, so the Quidditch game seems like it should go rather smoothly. As for afterwards," Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione, who were a few feet ahead of them, before continuing with a smile, "the plan is foolproof. All systems are go."

Five minutes later, when Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Katie entered the Great Hall, they took their usual seats at the Gryffindor table, and began piling food onto thier plates, all with the exception of Ron, who simply sat and stared at nothing in particular. Katie glanced at him, and then at Harry. Under normal circumstances, the captain of the Gryffindor Quiddtich team would be uncomfotable with the thought of an important Quidditch game against the Slytherins less than an hour away, and would thus be nervous or at least a bit fidgety at the moment. But instead, Harry was shoving food into his mouth, the look on his face one of pure joy; there wasn't a trace of nervousness there.

Katie thought this over in her head. In the muggle book, Harry had been fretting over this game for weeks, and the day before the game, had been practically as nervous as Ron. But the Harry that was sitting in front of her now was, well, the complete opposite. But thinking back, Katie remembered Monday night, when she had told Harry "not to worry" about the game, and that "everything would be fine".

'So that's why he's acting so confident' thought Katie to herself. 'He already knows that Gryffindor is going to win'.

Katie drew her eyes away from Harry, who was now wolfing down a plate of pancakes, and placed them on Ron who, unlike Harry, didn't know the outcome of the game. It seemed that Ron's face was getting more and more pale as the minutes passed; Katie thought that it would be best to get him out of the Great Hall as soon as possible, because he wasn't eating anyway, and because the Slytherins were beginning to shout names at him from two tables away.

But before Katie could suggest that the four of them should head outside to the Quidditch field, students began standing and heading out of the door: apparently everyone was greatly anticipating the upcoming game, and didn't want to hang around the Great Hall for too long, especially when there were only twenty minutes until the game would start.

So, following the example of the other students, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Katie got up out of thier seats and joined the long line of Hogwarts students that were eagrly waiting to get down to the Quidditch field. Finally getting out of the Great Hall, the four of them made thier way upstairs to the Gryffindor common room, so that Harry and Ron could get thier brooms and other equiptment, and Katie and Hermione could get thier gloves and scarves; the cold wintry weather was already starting to set in, even though it was only the beginning of November.

Less than five minutes later, the four of them were ready, and began to make their way out of the common room, so that they could join the rest of the school at the Quidditch field.

The corridors were nearly empty as Harry, Ron, Hermione and Katie raced down flight after flight of stairs, save for a few students here and there, who were also quickly making their way outside. Had the four Gryffindors not been rushing so much, and had they taken the time to observe their surroundings, they would have noticed the tall, blonde, Slytherin student that was racing down the corridors also, keeping just feet behind them. They also would have noticed that this person had been following them the second that they had stepped out of the common room.

Just as they finished coming down the last few stairs and started heading for the door that lead to the Quidditch field, Katie dropped one of her gloves. After stopping to pick it up Katie put it in her hand. But that was when she realized that she only had one glove, not two.

"Katie what are you doing let's go." Hermione said, not yet realizing that Katie was missing a glove.

"Where'd my other glove go?" Katie asked no one in particular and holding up her bare left hand.

Harry and Hermione gave the floor a quick search while Ron's pale face just stared ahead, not aware of his surroundings. After a group of Ravenclaws rushed their way past the group and went out onto the Quidditch field, Katie realized how late it was getting, and that Ron and Harry would have to get out to the Quidditch field because the game would be starting soon.

"You know what guys, why don't you just go ahead and I'll catch up after I find my glove." Katie told Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Are you sure you don't want help finding it?" Harry asked her as Hermione prepared for the chilly outdoors by wrapping a scarf around her neck.

"Yeah I'll just go back the way we came and look around on the floor and stuff really quick. Maybe its even still in the common room. But just go ahead, I'll be out there in a couple minutes." Katie reassured them.

"Well, if you're sure," Harry said. He walked over to her and gave her a small peck on the cheek.

"Good luck Harry." Katie told him.

"Thanks. And don't forget about later alright?" He asked in a low voice so Ron and Hermione wouldn't overhear.

Katie realized that he was talking about their plans to get Ron and Hermione together after the game was over. She smiled at him and said, "Don't worry, we planned it out already and everything. It'll be fun." And with that, Katie watched as Harry, Ron and Hermione walked towards the door and the Quidditch field beyond it. As she watched them walk away, she couldn't help but think that the three people walking away from her were the original trio of the Harry Potter series, and all of a sudden in the tiniest part of the back of her brain, Katie couldn't keep away the thought that somehow she was intruding on their lives.

But the next second she was remembering her missing glove, the reason why she wasn't with Harry, Ron and Hermione right now, but a little bit like an outsider, separated from them. She turned around and began walking in the direction she had come from minutes before, her eyes trained on the ground. After walking up a flight of stairs, and around a corner, she saw a small object lying on the ground at the end of the hallway. She walked up to it and was about to pick it up when she realized that it wasn't her glove, which was what she had been thinking, but a piece of newpaper, ripped apart and lying abandoned on the tiled floor. She was about to continue walking when she heard something behind her. Turning around, Katie saw a tall blonde figure emerging from around a corner nearby.

"Looking for this?" Malfoy asked her, holding up Katie's other glove.

Katie looked at him and a million thoughts whizzed through her head at once. What was Malfoy doing up here when he should be at the Quidditch game? Why was he following _her_? Why would he pick up a glove off the floor and know that it was hers? "Yeah, I am actually." Katie kept her eyes locked on his as she took the glove out of his hand. She saw in Mafoy's eyes the icy coldness that was so often described in the muggle books, but could have sworn there was something else there, something strange and unidentifiable...

"Your welcome." Malfoy said, even though she had never said thank you, and letting his hand drop to his side.

Katie said nothing, just put her glove back onto her hand, her eyes finally breaking the long stare that they had just held. Malfoy watched her put the glove on and then said, "So, uhh, you were going to the Quidditch game just now?"

Katie looked at him. Why was he trying to talk to her and why did he care where she was going? "Yeah, I was just getting my glove first."

"I see...So umm I saw you drop it before, just after you left the Gryffindor common room." Malfoy said.

'This is getting a little wierd' Katie thought to herself. But outloud she said, "And you just decided to give it to me now?"

Malfoy looked up from the floor where he had been staring. "Huh?" he said, trying to buy himself some time.

Katie let out a sigh. "If I dropped my glove after leaving the common room on the seventh floor and you saw me drop it, and then I went all the way downstairs and halfway back up again, why did you only just tell me now?"Katie asked him and added, in her head 'now that I'm alone'.

Malfoy just stared at her, and that's when Katie realized that he wasn't sneering at her like he normally would.

"Malfoy what do you want?" Katie asked, starting to get a little impatient now. Then she remembered, from the muggle book, that Malfoy was a Death Eater. She began to get nervous.

Malfoy smiled, but it wasn't a smile that made Katie feel any more comfortable. "I need to talk to you."

Katie stared. "...well here we are, you and me, go ahead and say whatever you have to say."

Mafloy shook his head "No. Not here, we can't talk here." he said. He looked around to make sure no one was there and then said, "Follow me."

Katie couldn't help but let out a humorless laugh. Malfoy, who had already begun walking away, turned at the sound.

"Sorry, but umm, what??" Katie asked. Malfoy just looked at her.

"What makes you think that I'm going anywhere with you?" She asked him.

Malfoy took a few steps over to her and grabbed her upper arm, not hard, and said, "Let's put it this way: I really need to talk to you and this may be the only chance that I'm ever going to get. Just come with me," and then added, "please."

Normally, Katie wouldn't have even wasted her time like this. The Quidditch game surley was about to start any second now. On any other day she would have just taken her glove and gotten out of there immediately. But there was something in Malfoy's voice, something in his eyes, that made Katie trust him only a little more than she normally would have...

* * *

Back at the Quiddtich field, Harry was just finishing up his pep talk with the Gryffindor Team. All eyes were on him, even Ron's, although Ron wasn't really paying attention to the words that were coming out of Harry's mouth like the rest of the team was. And out in the stands, Hermione was standing with Parvarti Patil and Lavender Brown, completely unaware of the fact that she was standing with what would be Ron's girlfriend later that evening if Harry and Katie weren't changing things around. But as she stood there and watched the two teams come out onto the field she began to wonder where Katie had got to, whether she had found her glove yet, and why Katie wasn't outside yet, watching the Quiddtich gme begin with her...

* * *

Katie was now following Malfoy through the main hallway, the place where she had been just a few minutes before with Harry, Ron and Hermione and where she had realized that she was missing her glove, and was starting to wonder the same things as Hermione. 'What am I doing following Malfoy?' she started thinking. 'Maybe I can slip through those doors and get outside to the Quiddtitch game before Malfoy even knows i'm gone, and-'

"Don't even think about it." Malfoy said, stopping for a second and turning around to face Katie. Katie looked at him, a little surprised, but then she remembered that Malfoy had been taught Legilimency by his aunt in the muggle book.

Malfoy started walking again, but Katie stayed where she was, looking back and forth between the door and Malfoy. Noticing this, Malfoy walked back to where Katie was standing and pulled out his wand. "Lets go. Now."

Katie sensed the urgency in his voice and eyed his wand cautiously. She gave one last look at the door before saying, "Fine lets go."

Malfoy looked around, making sure no one was around, and then started walking again, Katie in tow. They hadn't been walking for more than a minute when Katie asked, "So where is it that we're going?"

"Shhh." Was all that Malfoy said, and Katie was silenced, for a while. But after they walked through the doors that led to the dungeons underneath the castle, Katie couldn't resist. "Malfoy seriously where are we going?"

"Would you shut up? We're almost there."

Katie gave him a suspicious look, even though his back was turned, and decided that she should take her wand out also, just to be safe.

"You won't be needing that." Malfoy said, his head turned slightly and looking at her wand out of the corner of his eye. Katie, however, ignored him.

Finally, after turning a corer, the two stopped at a big green door. Katie was about to ask where they were or what this door led to when Malfoy faced the door and finally spoke. "The Dark Lord."

Katie assumed this was a password of some sort, and then realized her assumption was right when the door began to slowly creak its way open. Once it opened all the way, Katie found herself facing an almost entirely green room, with a view of what looked like an underground river or lake. Katie began to wonder why it was completely empty, but then remembered that everyone was at the Slytherin vs. Gryffindor Quiddtich match outside.

"This is the Slytherin Common Room." Malfoy said, and gestured with his hand that Katie should go inside. But Katie just looked at him, confused. "And why are we _here_?"

Malfoy turned around, checking again that there was no one around. "I told you. I need to talk to you. And this is the only place and time that I can say what I have to say."

Katie thought that Malfoy had to have planned this all out, and she had to give him a little credit: it _was _a pretty good plan. Everyone was at the Quidditch game, so the common room was completely empty, and so were the hallways, so no one would see Malfoy bringing her down here.

"But why?" Katie asked. "Why here? Did you forget that I'm in Gryffindor?"

Malfoy sneered at her, for the first time that day, and just said, "Just get in there and I'll explain everything." But when Katie hesitated, Malfoy just grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into the common room, shutting the door behind them.

Katie couldn't help it, she was completely overwhelmed, and was getting nervous. 'Why did Malfoy have to bring me here where it would be empty? I'm so stupid, what am I doing here, why did I even follow him? What is so important that he has to tell me in complete privacy?'

* * *

**Okayyy then. now i know that this chapter isn't really that long, but i wanted to end it here mostly because i wanted to end the chapter on a cliff hanger...so i hope you liked this chapter (whoever is actually reading this) and if i find out that people actually start reading this story again then i'll be sure to update again ok? but i don't want to write a story if nobody's going to read it, ya no? ok, so i would be _absolutely thrilled_ to recieve some reviews but my hopes aren't very high. but yeah hope u liked this chapter becasue i had a lot of fun writing it, especially the end. and if i do actually have some readers then i'll try to update really soon ok? :D**


	26. The horrible, horrible truth

**wow i still can't really believe that i actually started doing this story again, haha, i thought that i was done...but yeah here's the next chapter! yay! and thanks sooo much to all my reviewers! you guys are the more or less the reason why i started writing again!**

**NOTE: in this chapter and some of the next ones too, the plot will be switching back and forth between two places (usually malfoy-katie and harry-ron-hermione) i tried to make it less confusing by putting this: "o0o0o" every time it switches. i just wanted to warn you ahead of time so you know what it is. alright go ahead and read! :)**

* * *

"Alright, we can't be more alone Malfoy, just hurry up and say whatever you have to say." Katie said, a little impatient and completely unaware of anything that was going on.

But Malfoy wasn't listening, he was walking around the Slytherin common room and checking everywhere to make sure that no one was in there with them. He even checked the boys dormitory and, because he couldn't go in the girl's one, made Katie check it by holding his wand to her back until she went up and searched. The Slytherin girl's dormitories were almost the same as the Gryffindor ones, same layout and same furniture, except that everything in the Slytherin dormitories was colored green and silver, while the Gryffindor's were red and gold.

Katie looked at all of the beds. Empty. She looked in the spaces between the beds and the dressers. Also empty. Then she went to the side of the room opposite the door and looked in the closet. There was nobody in there. But on her way back to the door Katie tripped on hairbrush that was lying on the floor. Not only did she trip, but she fell to the ground, hitting her left leg extremely hard on one of the thick wooden bedposts, and her elbows were both smacked against the wooden floor.

Katie sat up and inspected her injuries. Her elbows looked like they would probably be alright, but there was already a big rad mark forming on the oust side of her left leg, right next to her knee. Now in an even worse mood, Katie got up to go back downstairs, but before leaving the room she hid the brush underneath one of the beds.

As she descended the stairs Malfoy looked up from where he had been searching and asked, "Well?"

"Malfoy you're an idiot you know that?" Katie had been brought here against her will, she had just tripped and fallen and was sure that she would have bruises later, Malfoy was making her search the Slytherin common room, and he wouldn't even tell her the reason that he had brought her here.

"No, there's nobody up there so lets go what did you have to tell me?"

But Malfoy was looking at Katie's elbows. "What happened?"

"I fell." Katie said simply, looking Malfoy in the face and daring him to laugh. He didn't.

"You ok?" Was all he said, no trace of laughter in his voice either. 'Why is he acting so weird today?' Kate asked herself, but out loud she said, "Yeah I'm fine."

Malfoy just went back to searching. Katie decided that he would probably be searching for a little while longer, so she sat on one of the couches. She watched Malfoy as he searched the common room from top to bottom, wall to wall, and looking in the most absurd places, like underneath the couches and inside of the fireplace. If Katie hadn't been so unnerved about this whole situation, she would have found it a little amusing: Malfoy was searching the room like an FBI agent would if he were looking for an escaped and highly dangerous criminal.

Katie was now sitting with her head resting on her arm. But after more than fifteen minutes Malfoy seemed satisfied that there was no one in the common room but himself and Katie. "Alright Vreeland come over here." He said. Malfoy was standing on the other side of the room near some more couches. Katie slowly got up and walked over to where he was standing, her hand gripping her wand and her eyes on Malfoy...

o0o0o

The frosty grass crunched underfoot as Harry and Ron strode down to the Gryffindor changing room and Hermione made her way up to the seating area. Ginny and Demelza were already wearing their Quidditch robes and waiting in the changing room.

"Conditions look ideal," said Ginny. "And guess what? That Slytherin Chaser Vaisey- he took a Bludger in the head yesterday during their practice, and he's too sore to play! And even better than that- Malfoy's gone off sick too!"

"_What?_" said Harry, wheeling around to stare at her. "He's ill? Whats wrong with him?"

"No idea, but its great for us," said Ginny brightly. "They're playing Harper instead; he's in my year and he's an idiot."

Harry smiled back vaguely, but as he pulled on his scarlet robes his mind was far from Quidditch. Malfoy had once before claimed that he could not play due to injury, but on that occasion he had made sure that the whole match was rescheduled for a time that suited the Slytherins better. Why was he now happy to let a substitute go on? Was he really ill, or was he faking?

o0o0o

"What." Katie said after standing there for a few seconds, just to break the silence. Malfoy looked at her and said, "You have to swear that you're not going to repeat anything that we talk about to anyone."

"Oooh what is this, top secret or something?" Katie said, mocking Malfoy's urgency. Katie could now tell that she wasn't the only one who was nervous.

"That's not funny. Seriously you can't say anything to anyone about this understand? Even us meeting here, it never happened alright?" When Katie didn't answer, Malfoy pointed his wand at her. "Swear it!"

"Alright alright I swear." Katie said, about to raise her wand also. "Just don't point that thing at me."

Malfoy lowered his wand. "Sorry, but this is really important. Alright listen." Malfoy took a breath. "I'm a Death Eater."

Katie just stared at him, not sure what to say to this. Sure, she knew about him being a Death Eater already, she'd known it before she even came to Hogwarts. But she couldn't let Malfoy know that she had known already, and she definitely couldn't let him know about the muggle books. "What?" Was the only thing that she could think of to say.

"You heard me, I'm a Death Eater." Malfoy said, and then added, "you know what that is right?"

"Yeah I know what it is, but I don't get it why are you telling me?"

"Because my father, Lucius Malfoy, is a Death Eater. So is my mum."

Katie didn't say anything, so he went on. "Yes, my parents, as well as the Dark Lord, felt that it was my duty as a Malfoy to become a Death Eater, keep the tradition, you know?"

Katie still didn't say anything, but she was beginning to get a feeling of where Malfoy was going with this. One of the reasons why Malfoy had become a Death Eater was because it was a "family tradition". And Katie and Malfoy were twin brother and sister, which meant that Katie was in the Malfoy family...

"Sure..." Katie said, just to take herself out of her thoughts.

Malfoy looked closely at Katie before continuing. "So, because I'm a Death Eater, The Dark Lord gave me a...a job...to do."

Katie knew what he was talking about, which was the fact that Voldemort had given Draco the job of killing Dumbledore in the beginning of the muggle book. She didn't tell him this, though, she just kept it to herself. Instead she acted like she didn't know what he was talking about. "What kind of job?" She asked, pretending to be interested.

Malfoy hesitated for a minute, and then said, "I have to kill Dumbledore."

Katie wasn't sure how much more of this she would be able to take. Everything that Malfoy was telling her she already knew. She began to wonder if this trip to the Slytherin common room was going to be completely pointless.

"What?? You're going to kill Dumbledore?!" Katie asked him, trying to keep up her act.

Malfoy was no longer the haughty, confident person that Katie had been so familiar with up to this point. She was seeing a different side of him today, his personality was almost unrecognizable. "I...I have to...He'll kill me if I don't go through with it...I don't have a choice."

Katie didn't know what to say to this. So she didn't say anything.

Malfoy continued, but changed the subject. "You know that we're brother and sister right? Twins?"

Katie was a little taken aback for a moment, didn't know why he was bringing this up all of a sudden. "Yeah, I know that..."

"Well so do my parents. And so does the Dark Lord." Malfoy said. Katie hesitated before saying anything. "...So?"

"So, the job that The Dark Lord gave to me...he wants you in on it too."

o0o0o

"Captains, shake hands." Madame Hooch said, and Harry had his hand crushed by the Slytherin Captain, Urquhart. "Mount your brooms. On the whistle...three...two...one..." The whistle sounded, signaling the beginning of the game, and Harry and the other players kicked off from the ground and the game began.

Hermione, who was already in the stands with the other Gryffindors and had been there for quite some time now, began cheering with the rest of Gryffindors in the stands, yelling things like Go Harry! and Go Ron!. But it hadn't gone unnoticed by Hermione that Katie wasn't there.

Although her atention was on the game, a small part of Hermione's brain began to wonder where she had got to, the last time she had see Katie was just inside the castle, when Katie had realized that her glove was missing. Hermione wondered whether whether Katie had found her glove yet or not. Maybe she was still looking for it. And if she wasn't, then where else could she possibly be?

o0o0o

Katie definitely wasn't prepared for this. "Wait, what?" Was all she could manage.

"You have to help me. With my job. Which is to kill Dumbledore." Malfoy sighed. "You have to help me kill Dumbledore."

Katie just stood there, as the weight of these words hit her. She felt like she was falling, falling through a deep, pitch black hole, and somehow at the same time drowning in a dark and bottomless lake, reaching for the surface but being unwillingly dragged down deeper and deeper-

"Katie?" Malfoy said hesitantly, looking into Katie eyes. But she wasn't looking at him, her eyes were unfocused, she was unaware of her surroundings, only the knowledge of what Malfoy had just said in her brain.

"I know you don't want to, I really don't want to kill anybody either but-"

"That's right I don't want to." The words came out of Katie's mouth softly, almost like a whisper. "And if I don't want to, then I'm not going to." She finally looked Malfoy full in the face.

Now it was Malfoy's turn to be taken aback. "But, you can't not do it...I mean...its not the...Katie this is the Dark Lord we're talking about...you _do _have to..." Malfoy sputtered.

"What's he going to do, lock me up in a prison or something if I don't?" Katie scoffed. "no. I'm not killing anybody. And I'm definitely not killing Dumbledore. No way."

Malfoy just stared at her. "Lock you up in a prison?" He actually almost laughed. "Forget prison, or, or torture...Katie, you don't do what he wants, you die."

Silence. Utter silence. Neither of the two said a word, Malfoy was waiting for Katie to react and Katie was too shocked to say anything.

"But...but...I...he can't _kill_ me...that's like, illegal...he can't..."

This time Malfoy actually did let out a laugh, although there was no humor behind it. "He _can't_? Katie this is The Dark Lord we're talking about. He'll torture you, kill you, kill your entire family. And not just me, not this family, the Malfoys, he'll kill your other parents as well."

At this point the reality of the situation really hit Katie. Her foster parents, Matthew and Elizabeth Sennot, the two people that she loved most in the world, the couple that had rescued her from that awful orphanage when she was five years old... Suddenly Katie remembered, one night when she was five, sitting on her bed as her new parents began tucking her into bed for the night. "Mommy?" the five-year-old Katie asked.

"Yes honey?"

"How long before I have to go back to the orphanage?"

"What do you mean, Katie? You live here now, with us. You're never going to go back to the orphanage." Elizabeth told her.

"Never?" Katie's eyes widened. "You mean I'm going to stay with you and Daddy forever??" Katie asked eagerly.

"Of course honey. Me and Daddy are your parents now, and we love you and we always will no matter what. We'll be with you forever."

Katie was sucked back into reality when Malfoy said her name again. She just stared into his face, not really seeing him, her mother's words racing through her head: 'We love you and we always will no matter what. We'll be with you forever.' And then Malfoy's voice: 'You have to help me kill Dumbledore...Or he'll kill you...He'll kill your other parents as well'.

Katie stared into space, a horror erupting inside so intense she actually felt her stomach lurch- similar to the feeling one gets when one is about to vomit. Goosebumps started to appear on her arms and legs, chills running up and down her spine. Her parents faces flashed in front of her eyes. Katie remembered the joy that she had felt the day that they took her away from the orphanage and into their lives. Katie had never loved anyone like she loved them. And she would stop at nothing to keep them out of harm's way...

As if listening to a voice from very far away, Katie realized the horrible, horrible truth, realized what she would inevitably have to do. It was like a bomb had exploded inside her brain, or she had been hit in the stomach with an extremely heavy object. Lives would be lost either way: If she said no and went against Voldemort, then he would kill her, her foster parents, her real family (the Malfoys), and Dumbledore would end up dying also- either Malfoy would end up killing him or Snape would do it like he did in the muggle book.

But if she went along with what Voldemort wanted her to do, the only person that would die would be Dumbledore. And Katie realized that he would die either way, whatever happened. And so Katie realized the horrible and undeniable truth, and finally, after not speaking for nearly twenty minutes, said, "Alright Malfoy. What do I have to do?"

* * *

**wow what a horrible chapter huh? i no i no another cliff hanger. sry guys but i had to do it. lol well i hope u liked the chapter, cuz i definitly enjoyed writing it! so show ur love by reviewing plz!! it'll be greatly apreciated! lol ok just** **_GO REVIEW _****and be on your way! adios! :)**


	27. Lair lair

**ok so I don't want to come off as mean or greedy or anything but i'm hoping for more reviews guys. the number of hits for this story are way more than the number of reviews i'm getting, so i'm just asking for some more ppl to review my story after they read it. it doesn't have to be a long one or anything, and it doesn't take long to write a review, i swear. and even if you don't have a fanfiction name or you're not logged in, you can still review. you don't even have to give ur email if you don't want to. but anyways, i just wanted more reviews plz. thanks guys!**

**oh and i don't own harry potter, but i guess i do own Katie Vreeland, if that counts for anything. lol.**

* * *

"And I think Harper of Slytherin's seen the Snitch!" said Zacharias Smith through his microphone. "Yes, he's certaintly seen something Potter hasn't!"

Smith really was an idiot, thought Harry, hadn't he noticed them collide? But the next moment, his stomach seem to drop out of the sky- Smith was right and Harry was wrong: Harper had not sped upwards at random; he had spotted what Harry had not: The Snitch was speeding along high above them, glinting brightly against the clear blue sky.

Harry accelerated; the wind was whistling in his ears so that it drowned out all sound of Smith's comentary or the crowd, but Harper was still ahead of him, and Gryffindor was only a hundred points up...

o0o0o

"So you'll do it?" Malfoy asked.

Katie hesitated before answering, as if waiting could change the word she was about to say. But finally she felt her answer come out of her mouth, "Yeah. Yeah I'll do it."

Malfoy didn't smile, though he was completely satisfied with her answer; it just wasn't the time for smiling. "So, umm, I know we already discussed this but...this conversation, this meeting, it never happened. Alright?"

Katie looked at him. It had been so much easier to swear secrecy when she had no idea what Malfoy had to tell her than now, now that she knew that she had given her word that she would tell no one about this; she could tell no one about the fact that she was going to be involved in the murder of Albus Dumbledore. But she remembered what Voldemort would do to her family (both of them) if she went against him.

"Malfoy you have my word. I won't tell anyone."

Malfoy was much more satisfied with her answer this time than the last time she swore her secrecy; this time it was sincere.

o0o0o

...If Harper got there first Gryffindor would lose...and now Harper was feet from the Snitch, his hand outstretched...

"Oi, Harper!" yelled Harry in desperation. "How much did Malfoy pay you to come on instead of him?"

He did not know what made him say it, but Harper did a double take; he fumbled the Snitch, let it slip through his fingers, and shot right past it. Harry made a great swipe for the tiny, fluttering ball and caught it.

"YES!" Harrry yelled. Wheeling around, he hurtled back toward the ground, the Snitch held high in his hand. As the crowd realized what had happened, a great shout went up that almost drowned the sound of the whistle that signaled the end of the game.

o0o0o

"Alright well I don't know how much more time we have..." Malfoy said, thinking. When Katie gave him a questioning look, he said, "I don't know how long it will be before the Quidditch match is over and everybody starts coming back in her-"

"Oh my god the Quidditch game!" Katie realized what was going on outside with a jolt. "I completely forgot! How long have we been here?" She asked Malfoy.

"I dunno, but I guess you can leave now if you want. I told you everything that I needed to. We just need to arrange the time and date of our next meeting."

"Next meeting?" Katie asked.

"...Well yeah. We have to work on this together don't we?" Malfoy said.

"Oh. Yeah."

Both of them could feel the awkwardness of the moment. A Slytherin and a Gryffindor, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter's girlfriend, working together to commit the murder of their headmaster. Beyond absurd.

"Well, erm...do you know what the Room of Requirement is?" Malfoy asked her slowly.

o0o0o

Harry clapped Ron on the back and laughed and yelled with the rest of the Gryffindors, overjoyed about their win. The team left the field together, arm in arm, punching the air and waving to their supporters. The atmosphere in the changing room was jubilant.

"Party up in the common room, Seamus said!" yelled Dean.

o0o0o

"Yeah, I know what the Room of Requirement is." Katie answered.

"You know where it is too?"

"Sure. The seventh floor, across from the portrait of the dancing trolls." Katie could tell that Malfoy was wondering how she knew this when she had barely been at Hogwarts for half a year, but he didn't say anything about it.

"Alright, why don't we meet there then. I've already started on something in there anyway, but I'll show you that next time we get together."

"Ok so then when are we meeting?" Katie asked.

"Here, take this." Malfoy said, handing Katie a small golden coin.

"What is it?" Katie asked, rolling the coin around in her hand.

"Its a fake galleon, enchanted with a Protean Charm. I have one too," Malfoy said, holding up another coin, similar to Katie's. "See the little numbers on the edge of the coin?" Malfoy asked. "On a real galleon that's just a serial number referring to the goblin who cast the coin. On these fake coins, though, the numbers will change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting." Katie suddenly remembered the muggle books, the fifth one in particular, where Hermione made coins just like these to use in Dumbledore's Army. Although she knew where Malfoy had gotten the idea from, she didn't say anything; she had already decided not to mention the muggle books to Malfoy.

"And since I've put a Protean Charm on them, when I set the time and date of the next meeting on my coin, yours will change to mimic mine. Got that?" Malfoy asked.

"Yeah I got it." As Katie was putting the coin in her pocket, the sounds of students entering the building began to fill the room; the Slytherin common room was in the dungeons, underneath the castle, which made it fairly easy to hear the loud noises of students cheering and talking and walking around upstairs. Katie and Malfoy looked at each other, and Katie said, "Well I guess I'd better go..."

o0o0o

Ron and Harry were the last ones to leave the changing room. Harry congratulated Ron on the many goals he saved- despite Ron's less-than-satisfactory performance during the practices that had preluded the game, Ron was the hero of the game, not missing a single goal.

"I heard Dean say that there was going to be a party in the common room." Ron said exuberantly. Winning the Quidditch game certantly had an extremely positive effect on Ron's mood.

"Yeah, can't wait. I guess we'll just meet up with Hermione and Katie there in the common room." Harry said, his mind on the plan that he and Katie had thought over so carefully. As if on cue, Lavender Brown came up behind Ron and Harry and said, "Great game guys. Ron, you did amazing!"

Ron's face turned the lightest shade of pink, but before he could say anything Harry said, "Lavender I just saw Katie, she said she was looking for you."

"Oh really?" Lavender asked. Ron, too excited over his performance and Lavender's compliment, didn't realize that Harry hadn't seen Katie since before the game had even started.

"Yeah she had something to tell you, something about Slughorn wanting to talk to you I think." Harry lied. He knew that Katie was supposed to be doing this, getting Lavender out of the way, but he assumed that she was already in the common room with Hermione, waiting for him and Ron.

After Lavender left for Slughorn's office in the dungeons, Harry and Ron started to make their way up to the Gryffindor common room on the seventh floor, talking excitedly along the way.

o0o0o

Katie peered around the first corner. Nothing in sight but some grotesque paintings decorating the walls and the dark, ominous looking bricks on the walls. She looked behind her and saw the green door at the end of the hallway, which she had just gone through seconds before. She rounded the corner ahead of her and sped up the hallway. She had almost made it out of the dungeons when she hear footsteps coming her way.

Katie turned to the left. There stood Professor Slughorn's office, but the door was closed and probably locked. She looked to the right and saw a small closet just ahead of where she was standing. She ran to it, trying not to make any noise, and slipped inside.

Katie made it just in time. Lavender Brown appeared around the corner just as Katie finished closing the door.

But because Katie was behind a solid wooden door, she had no idea that Lavender was just on the other side of the door. Which means that she had no idea that the "plan" was already starting without her.

o0o0o

When Harry and Ron first stepped into the common room they weren't surprised to see- and hear- how noisy it was in the room. Renewed cheers and clapping greeted their appearance, and they were soon surrounded by a mob of people congratulating them. The party was in full swing by this time, and everyone looked like they were having a great time.

"Help me find Katie and Hermione." Harry said to Ron, only to discover that Ron was already at the food table. So Harry looked for the girls himself. But neither Katie nor Hermione was anywhere in the room, and it wasn't long before Harry discovered this.

o0o0o

Lavender walked up to the door that led to Slughorn's office and knocked. Katie distinctly heard the knock, and a second later, the sound of a door being opened and then closed. Katie opened the door to the closet just enough to be able to see out of a small crack. There didn't seem to be anyone in the corridor, so she opened the door all the way, slipped past the open doorway, and then raced down the corridor, not stopping until she reached the front hall, where students were still pouring into the castle from the Quidditch game.

And Katie realized that all of these people had been at the game, supporting their house and their friends. Katie, on the other hand, hadn't seen a single minute of the game. She knew she would have to face Harry, Ron, and Hermione- and possibly some others- about not being at the game, and she had to have a believable excuse for missing it...

Katie started heading for the Gryffindor common room, on the seventh floor, walking as casually as she could manage, not wanting to look suspicious, and at the same time, her brain working to find something-anything- that she could tell Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

She didn't meet anyone on her way that questioned her or looked at her funny. No one stopped her and she didn't see anyone that she was friends with that would want to stop and chat. She had made it up to the third floor already and everything was going just fin-

"Hey Katie!" Katie spun around at the sound of her name, and saw a girl with bushy brown hair wearing Gryffindor robes.

"Oh hey Hermione!" Katie said, trying to keep any trace of nervousness out of her voice.

o0o0o

"Hey, have you seen Katie?" Harry asked Dean and Seamus, both of which were holding mugs full to the brim with butterbeer.

"Nope, haven't seen her Harry." Dean said.

"Well what about Hermione?" Harry asked them.

"Haven't seen her either. Why?"

Harry didn't answer. He and Katie had both agreed days ago about this plan and had gone over it a hundred times before today. Katie was supposed to have told Lavender Brown that Slughorn was looking for her. But Harry ended up having to do that. And now she wasn't here in the common room when she was supposed to be.

'After she had left the Quidditch field when the game was over where else would Katie have gone besides the common room?' Harry asked himself. What he didn't know was that Katie had never been at the game.

o0o0o

Hermione walked closer to where Katie was standing, but didn't speak. Katie knew that the subject was bound to come up sooner or later anyway, so she decided to get it out of the way. "So did we win the game?"

"Yeah Gryffindor won!" Hermione said excitedly. "But where were you? I didn't see you at all." She asked suspiciously.

Katie decided to go with the first excuse that she had thought of, even though she hadn't fully planned it out. "Oh I feel horrible for not being able to go." Katie began, although to her that opening sentence didn't sound as believable as she would have liked. She continued anyway. "See, what happened was, I went all the way up to the fifth floor before I found my glove- I must have dropped it all the way up there," Katie lied. She had actually recovered her glove when Malfoy gave it to her, on the seventh floor. "So I put it on, and then I was coming back downstairs, and I thought that the Quidditch game would have surely started by the time I had searched five floors, and I didn't want to miss any of the game. So I was rushing down a flight of stairs when I tripped and fell."

At this point Katie showed Hermione the bruises on her leg and elbows. Hermione alctually gasped out loud, and that was the point where Katie could tell that she actually had a pretty good chance of Hermione believing her. Proof made everything more believable, although in this case Katie's "proof" was yet another lie- her bruises weren't from what she told Hermione they were from, they were actually the briuses she got when she fell in the Slytherin girl's common room.

"Oh Katie, I had no idea! Are you alright?" Hermione asked, eyeing the particularly large and painful looking bruise on Katie's left leg.

"Well I am now, but after I had fallen down an entire flight of stairs, my leg was hurting an awful lot. So I limped all the way down to the third floor, to the Hospital Wing," Katie was really getting into the story now. "And Madame Pomfrey told me that I had broken my left leg." But after seeing Hermione's startled expression, Katie quickly added, "But don't worry, she fixed it, its fine now. All I have is a few bruises."

"Katie I'm so sorry, I had no idea that that happened to you. Are you sure you're alright?"

'Of course I'm alright, the whole story was a total lie." Katie thought to herself. But out loud she said, "Yeah I'll be fine, I can barely feel it hurting now. I was just disappointed that I couldn't make it to the game in time." She said, bringing the Quidditch game back into the conversation.

"Well what are you doing here on the third floor?" Hermione asked her. "Were you going back to the Hospital Wing or something?"

"...Yeah," Katie said slowly. "Madame Pomfrey told me to come back in about five or ten minutes, she said she'll have some sort of potion ready for me that would help to heal the bruises a little bit faster." Katie made this part of the story up on the spot, praying for Hermione to buy it.

"Oh, well then why don't I come with you?" Hermione suggested.

"Oh, no, that's really ok Hermione, I can make it myself, don't worry about it," Katie said quickly.

"No, come on I'll walk with you." Hermione said. "We're on the third floor already anyway, the Hospital Wing isn't that far. Come on."

Katie had no choice now but to walk with Hermione to the Hospital Wing that she had never even visited. When they got there, Hermione said, "I'll just wait out here, it shouldn't take long, right?"

"No, not at all. I'll be right out." Katie told her.

o0o0o

Harry went over to the food table where Ron still was and was about to say something to him when he saw the potrait door open and who else would walk in but Lavender Brown.

"Hey Ron," Harry said with the intention of having Ron's attention on anything but Lavender.

"Oh hey, Harry. Want some food?" Ron asked him, his mouth full of pastries.

"No thanks Ron-"

"Oh well. I think I'm going to go up to the dormitory and get some sleep. Tired from the big game, you know?" Ron said yawning. Harry thought that this was a good idea, because it would keep him away from Lavender, but then realized that he and Katie wouldn't be able to get Ron and Hermione together if Ron was upstairs sleeping.

"No Ron, wait-" Harry started, but Ron was already halfway across the room. 'Well,' thought Harry, 'Katie and Hermione arent' even in here, so I guess it doesn't really matter if Ron's missing too..." Harry sat down in an armchair and let the Creevey brothers interrogate him about the Quidditch game...

o0o0o

Katie opened the door to the Hospital Wing and went inside, praying that there would be nobody in there, least of all Madame Pomfrey. She was lucky however, probably because everyone had just been at the Quidditch game- the Hospital Wing was completely empty. But just when Katie thought that she was alone, Madame Pomfrey walked out of her office. She saw Katie immediately and said, "Is there anything I can do for you dear?"

Katie hesitated, a new lie forming behind her closed mouth. "No, thank you. I was just looking for a book that my friend left in here a little while ago. She was in this bed right here..." Katie walked over to the nearest bed and pretended to look around it for the non-existent book. "Oh well," Katie said. "She must have taken it with her."

"Is that all dear?" Madame Pomfrey asked.

"Yes, that was all. Thank you." Katie said, starting to feel bad for wasting Madame Pomfrey's time.

Hermione was standing in the same place that she was when Hermione left her.

"So do you wanna go back to the common room now?" Katie asked her.

"Yeah let's go. Did Madame Pomfrey give you the stuff for your bruise?" Hermione asked.

"Oh. Yeah, she gave it to me. It won't start working for a little while though." And Katie and Hermione made their way back through the hallways, which were nearly empty now that everyone had made it to their common rooms.

o0o0o

Harry had been sitting in the same armchair for at least ten minutes after the Creevey brothers left, just staring into the fireplace. The party had already started to die down, and quite a few people had already gone upstairs to go to bed, which left the common room not nearly as crowded as it had been a while ago.

All of a sudden, out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw the portrait door open and in walked Katie and Hermione. After scanning the room both their eyes fell on Harry and they walked over to him, each taking an armchair on either side of Harry.

"So where were you guys?" Harry asked once they had both sat down.

Katie and Hermione looked at each other, then Katie handed Harry the same lie she gave Hermione. And just like Hermione, Harry bought the entire thing.

* * *

**Alright! so you guys see that little purple box down there? The one that says "Go"? go ahead and click on it. go on, you know you want to!! lol ok i'm done. :D**


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